Global Hotel Alliance extends $15 app bonus and free breakfast – plus starts selling points

Global Hotel Alliance, and its GHA DISCOVERY loyalty programme, has been pushing its way onto our radar over the last couple of years.

This is down to three things:

• a very generous status programme (get top tier status, which is well respected by member hotels, for just three stays if they are at different brands)

• a generous loyalty programme (you get up to 7% cashback on stays) and

• generous promotions, including regular triple points offers and an ongoing app booking bonus

There are also regular American Express cashback offers for NH Hotels and nhow Hotels, which are two key brands in the programmme.

We ran a separate piece yesterday which provides an overview of GHA DISCOVERY and will become our core reference article on the programme.

Global Hotel Alliance is a marketing alliance for almost 40 smaller hotel brands. Kempinski is probably the best known, but you are probably aware of Anantara and NH Hotels which are also in there. It’s an eclectic collection which a slight slant towards Asia, although the spread is more balanced since NH Hotels came in.

In this article I want to focus on three recent changes.

GHA has extended its $15 app booking bonus

GHA has had an app booking bonus for a while, but it was due to end last month.

The deal has now been extended and is valid for stays completed by 31st December 2024.

It’s very simple. Make your booking for any GHA hotel via the GHA DISCOVERY app and you will receive an extra $15 in DISCOVERY Dollars, which is the GHA reward currency.

DISCOVERY Dollars are as good as cash and be used at any GHA hotel to part pay for your next stay or for incidentals, as long as you are paying at check out.

The only catch with the $15 app booking bonus is that the credit is only valid for six months. Base DISCOVERY Dollars earned from stays are valid for 12-24 months depending on your status.

GHA is rolling out free breakfast for top tier Titanium members

As I mentioned above, and as I explained in more detail in our longer GHA article yesterday, you can get top tier Titanium status by staying at just three different brands in a calendar year.

It’s the easiest top tier hotel status to earn and the benefits are decent – including a two category upgrade.

In 2024, GHA started to roll out a free breakfast benefit for Titanium members. Progress has been modest so far but we are told that more brands will come.

At present, Titanium members receive free breakfast with:

• Andronis (added August 2024)
• Araiya (added August 2024)
• Capella Hotels & Resorts (new from 4th June)
• Divani (added August 2024)
• Grand Hotel Heiligendamm
• Lore Group (includes Sea Containers, 100 Shoreditch)
• Lungarno Collection
• Marco Polo Hotels
• Maqo Hotels
• Mysk Hotels
• Niccolo Hotels
• Nikki Beach Hotels & Resorts
• Shaza Hotels
• The Set Collection (includes Cafe Royal)

Given that you receive Titanium status after staying at just three GHA brands in the same membership year, it is well worth pushing for if you are planning a long stay at any of the brands above.

Buy GHA DISCOVERY Dollars – even though they are fixed value

This final change is a little odd, but could save you a little money.

GHA DISCOVERY has recently started selling DISCOVERY Dollars.

Now, most hotel chains and airline programmes sell their points. What is different about GHA is that its points have a fixed value. 1 DISCOVERY Dollar is worth $1 off your next hotel stay.

As a trial, until the end of August, you can buy DISCOVERY Dollars at a discount to face value. The discount is based on your status:

• Silver – 10% off
• Gold – 12% off
• Platinum – 14% off
• Titanium – 15% off

There are also caps on what you can buy:

• Silver – maximum D$200 in a transaction & D$600 in a calendar year
• Gold – maximum D$300 in a transaction & D$900 in a calendar year
• Platinum – maximum D$400 in a transaction & D$1,200 in a calendar year
• Titanium – maximum D$500 in a transaction & D$1,500 in a calendar year

There are three reasons why this deal is less good than it looks:

• unless you stay at a US hotel, your hotel will convert your DISCOVERY Dollars into local currency when you redeem, probably at a weak FX rate (EDIT: reader input is that this isn’t correct and you get the mid-market rate)

• you can’t use DISCOVERY Dollars on pre-paid stays, except for food and drink charges added to your bill during the stay

• you won’t earn points back on the part of your bill paid with DISCOVERY Dollars

This last point is important. Yes, you save 15% on DISCOVERY Dollars if you are Titanium, but you would have got 7% back in DISCOVERY Dollars on the (ex-tax) amount you spent if you’d paid cash.

You should still make a saving but it won’t be as big as you think.

If there is a double or triple DISCOVERY Dollars promotion running when you stay, you could end up worse off! The saving by pre-paying for DISCOVERY Dollars may be lower than the amount you would have earned back from your stay when bonuses are included.

We have a €1,500 Kempinski stay in August but, at the moment, I am not tempted to buy DISCOVERY Dollars to cover the bill. If I do, I will do it at the last minute when I am certain that I won’t cancel the stay.

You can buy DISCOVERY Dollars on this page of the website.

Conclusion

As we said in our overview yesterday, GHA DISCOVERY is moving quickly to become an interesting and relevant hotel loyalty programme.

The three changes above, plus the constant addition of new brands (Lore Group, Plum Guide home rentals and Cheval serviced apartments will all have joined by the end of 2024), means that you should be signing up and taking the scheme more seriously.

Hopefully we can see free breakfast added at Kempinski and NH Hotels properties, which are the two largest brands in the group which you would be likely to use.

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