How to Join Mr & Mrs Smith: How Selection Actually Works

This blog explains how Mr & Mrs Smith actually selects hotels, since there’s no application form to fill out. Properties join by invitation only, following an anonymous mystery review, not a submission process.

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What Is Mr & Mrs Smith?

Mr & Mrs Smith is a boutique and luxury hotel collection now integrated with World of Hyatt, featuring over 700 boutique hotels and villas available through that partnership specifically, drawn from a considerably larger global collection known for distinctive design and character. Unlike a typical consortium with a public application, hotels don’t apply to join in the conventional sense.

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How Properties Actually Get Selected by Mr & Mrs Smith

There’s no signup form to complete for general hotel membership, so understanding the real mechanism matters more than searching for an application that doesn’t exist. Here’s how it actually works, in more detail:

Step 1: Understand that selection is invitation-only, not application-based. This is the single most important thing to internalize before anything else. Mr & Mrs Smith’s own co-founder has stated plainly that no hotel, villa, or experience can buy its way into the collection. Properties don’t submit a form and wait for a decision the way they would with SLH or HotelPlanner. There is no portal where you upload photos, list your amenities, and receive a response.

Step 2: Know that interest alone doesn’t lead anywhere. The company receives dozens of requests daily from properties wanting to join, but expressing interest doesn’t trigger a review on its own. There’s no queue you can formally enter by asking. Some hotels do reach out directly, particularly in markets where Mr & Mrs Smith is actively expanding, but a request or inquiry sits separately from the curation team’s own discovery process.

Sending an email or filling out a general contact form is not the same as being placed under consideration. Treat any outreach as a long shot rather than a formal step in a process, since the real decision-making happens independently of it.

Step 3: Get discovered or noticed organically. Since there’s no application to submit, properties typically come to Mr & Mrs Smith’s attention through reputation, press coverage, design recognition, or word of mouth among the tastemakers and travelers the brand already trusts. The company’s curation team actively scouts for properties, particularly in regions or destination types where they see gaps in the existing collection.

This means your best lever isn’t outreach, it’s visibility. A hotel that’s covered in design or travel press, recommended by past Mr & Mrs Smith guests, or discussed within the boutique hospitality community is more likely to end up on the curation team’s radar than one relying solely on direct contact.

Step 4: Undergo an anonymous mystery review. Every hotel considered is visited and reviewed anonymously by a diverse group of trusted reviewers, which has included figures like Stella McCartney, Philip Treacy, and Dita Von Teese. The property doesn’t know it’s being evaluated during the visit, which means the review reflects a genuinely ordinary stay rather than a specially prepared one. This is a meaningful distinction from consortiums that announce an inspection in advance.

There’s no opportunity to put on a show for a known evaluator. Consistency in the day-to-day guest experience matters more here than a single exceptional effort timed around a known visit.

Step 5: Wait for an invitation, not an approval notice. If the anonymous review goes well, the property may be invited to join the collection. This differs fundamentally from a pass/fail application outcome, since there’s no formal submission to be approved or rejected in the first place.

There’s also no published timeline for this stage, and no guaranteed follow-up if a review doesn’t result in an invitation. Properties shouldn’t expect a rejection notice or specific feedback the way they might from a program with a formal application process, since the entire mechanism operates outside that kind of structured pipeline.

Step 6: Understand that membership here doesn’t lock you out of other consortiums. Unlike some competing luxury collections, a Mr & Mrs Smith invitation is non-exclusive, so a property can be part of Mr & Mrs Smith and another consortium simultaneously.

This matters for properties weighing multiple marketing channels at once, since joining doesn’t require exiting a relationship with SLH, Design Hotels, or a similar collection. It’s worth confirming this against your other consortium agreements individually, since exclusivity terms are set by each program independently.

If you’re looking for something you can actually apply to directly, Mr & Mrs Smith does maintain a separate public application specifically for luxury villas in certain regions, such as the Balearic Islands. That process is distinct from general hotel membership and doesn’t apply to hotels seeking the broader collection’s recognition.

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What Likely Gets a Property Noticed

Strong independent design and a genuinely distinctive guest experience matter more than amenity count or star rating. Press coverage and recognition within the design and travel community increase the odds of coming to the brand’s attention. A consistent, well-run guest experience matters most of all, since the anonymous review reflects an ordinary stay, not a special occasion. Properties investing in a strong PR presence, a distinctive design identity, and word-of-mouth reputation within the boutique travel community are playing the only real lever available here, since there’s no form to fill out that substitutes for genuine visibility.

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Ready to Let roommaster Handle the Everyday?

Mr & Mrs Smith’s anonymous reviewers evaluate an ordinary stay, not a specially prepared one, which means your day-to-day operations have to be consistently strong with no advance warning of who’s watching. roommaster’s PMS helps keep reservations, service details, and daily operations accurate across every guest, so the experience an anonymous reviewer finds is the same one every guest gets.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can I apply to join Mr & Mrs Smith?

Not for general hotel membership. There’s no application form. Selection is invitation-only, based on an anonymous mystery review.

2. Is there any way to directly apply?

A separate public application exists for luxury villas in specific regions, like the Balearic Islands, but this doesn’t apply to general hotel membership.

3. How does the mystery review work?

An anonymous reviewer, part of a group of trusted tastemakers, visits the property without identifying themselves, and evaluates it as a normal guest would.

4. Can I pay to be featured by Mr & Mrs Smith?

No. The company’s co-founder has stated directly that no property can buy its way into the collection.

5. If I’m invited, do I have to leave other hotel consortiums?

No. Mr & Mrs Smith membership is non-exclusive, so properties can belong to multiple collections at once.

6. How many properties are part of the collection?

Over 700 boutique hotels and villas are available through the World of Hyatt integration specifically. The broader Mr & Mrs Smith collection is considerably larger, so this figure reflects the Hyatt-connected subset rather than the total portfolio.