Leading Hotels of the World, or LHW.com offer some of the most luxurious hotels in the world. This consortium of more than 375 luxury hotels and resorts in over 75 countries can be booked directly on their website. It is headquartered in New York City and maintains offices in 25 cities worldwide.
Leaders Club is the LHW loyalty scheme, and you can join this scheme for $175 USD.
The benefits offered with this standard tier membership are:
- Room upgrade considerations when available with one pre-arrival upgrade annually
- Diamond points Earning towards free nights with points. $1 USD = 1 point
- It appears that a Club member gets 7.5% in points, a Sterling member 7.875% of their room rate back in points, and an Aurelian member gets over 8% back in points
- Daily continental breakfast for two complimentary benefits during every stay
- Access to exclusive rates and experiences
This means that one Leaders Club Diamond point is worth around $0.07 – $0.08 USD, so if you book a $1000 USD stay, you will get around $70 – $80 USD worth of points to spend against a future stay. This return is worthwhile if you stay at lhw.com hotels for a great deal, but bear in mind that you need to spend around $1,750 USD at Leading hotels before you break even on your $175 USD membership fee.
Can I get Leaders Club For Free?
Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) used to run a promotion that offered a one-year complimentary Leaders Club Membership. They offered this free membership invite to everyone who stayed at their hotels. This does not seem to be the case anymore. Certainly, on my last trip to the Hotel Hermitage in Monte Carlo, there was no free invite.
How Else Can I Get Leaders Club Membership And Benefits Free?
You will also get these benefits except the loyalty points (which have 7%-8% value) by booking any LHW.com hotel via our Luxury Travel Concierge. Our concierge has no joining fee and can book you into any luxury hotel around the world (also including chains like Four Seasons) with all our similar, advertised benefits added in for free!
I Am A Member, But I Would Like More Than 7-8% Cashback In Points!
We have a solution. Booking any LHW.com hotel via our Luxury Travel Concierge, and we can link the booking to your Leaders Club account, so you get your usual benefits and points. We can also offer you an additional gift as a thank you for booking with us!
You’re welcome!
I Want To Join Leaders Club: Which Level Should I Join?
I am an Aurelian member and spent 876 Euros (translates to around $1047 USD) at the Hermitage last month. This earned me 1047 points (my food and beverage and general spend at the hotel did not count towards my points). My 1 point is worth $0.08 USD according to my login screen, so I am getting an 8% cashback via the loyalty club; My 1047 points are worth $83 USD.
But you can’t buy into Aurelian. You can only buy into the base membership for $175 USD, and a Club member only gets 7.5% back in points per booking.
Spend $5000 USD in a calendar year, and you will be invited to become a Sterling member, which apparently gives you a cashback of 7.875%. Sterling level also comes with five guaranteed room upgrades at the time of booking, which is a valuable benefit.
Spend $10,000 USD, and you will apparently sit in the top 1% of LHW members, and you will be invited to pay $1,500 USD to get 8% back in points along with other benefits outlined below.
Aurelian status
If you are within the top 1% of the entire Leaders Club membership base within the preceding calendar year (January to December) you must be invited to Aurelian status and to pay a $1,500 USD fee. Invitations are issued once a year in December for the following calendar year.
I am an Aurelian. I book my stays through Luxury Travel Concierge so that I get my Leaders Club benefits AND a gift from our concierge.
They get:
- Daily continental breakfast for two (same as standard membership)
- Complimentary Wi-Fi (same as standard membership)
- Guaranteed 4:00 P.M. late check-out – a very useful benefit!
- Early check-in upon availability (same as standard membership)
- Ground Transportation – now capped at $300 USD per membership year, previously free to/from airport per stay at 30 cities
- Premium Ground Transportation Budget apparently worth $300 USD, but I only had $100 USD on my account
Of note: The guaranteed room upgrades cannot be used for suites. You only earn points based on your room rate.
Premium Ground Transportation Budget
The Premium Ground Transportation budget of $300 USD (or $100 USD, which is the promo I found on my account) is an extremely valuable benefit if you want to rent a car or a van. Could I figure out how to use it on airport transfers? Nope! So for me, this benefit is not so great! The Sixt customer services have sent me details of how to book a transfer with my $100 USD. Apparently, it is possible… but it is quite a complicated process, so this benefit has value but is a hassle.
They say, “You can use your flexible budget anytime across all the eligible MaaS by Sixt products and services. Access your budget through the convenient MaaS by Sixt online platform. Bookings that exceed the budget will be charged to your private payment method.
Sixt Rent a Car has always stood for high-quality customer service, premium products, and a seamless car rental experience. With 2,200 locations around the globe, Sixt provides exciting mobility and tailored solutions.
Sixt myDriver allows you to book chauffeured transfers in over 150 cities in 60 countries.
DriveNow is a free-floating car-sharing service offering the ability to hire a range of high-quality premium BMW and MINI brand vehicles in various European cities.”
Conclusion
For someone who frequently stays at LHW hotels, these memberships provide a decent value. The breakfast benefit for two is well worth having, as is the room upgrade in particular.
Remember that you don’t need to join Leaders Club to get either of these benefits. Just book via our Luxury Travel Concierge and we can deliver these benefits for free,
The truth is that you need to spend around $1,800 USD to get your joining fee back, so it is only worth becoming a member if you are planning to book over $1,800 USD worth of stays per annum. If you do plan to spend this budget, you should join up but still book your LHW.com stay via our Luxury Travel Concierge as we can link the booking to your Leaders Club account, so you get your usual benefits and points, and then we can also offer you an additional gift as a thank you for booking with us!
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