A cunning plan to get free, valuable, top-tier GHA hotel status for 2026

GHA DISCOVERY, the loyalty programme for Global Hotel Alliance, has been making a name for itself over the last couple of years with a mix of easy to earn status, generous elite benefits and attractive promotions. Membership has shot up to 27 million people.

Global Hotel Alliance is a marketing group used by 45 upmarket hotel brands with a total of 850+ combined properties in over 100 countries. It is the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands.

There is now a way, if you have hotel status elsewhere, to match to Global Hotel Alliance status. You won’t get it until 2026, however!

Who is in Global Hotel Alliance?

Kempinski is the biggest GHA brand that most people will know.  Other major names include NH Hotels and sister brand nhow, Pan Pacific, Corinthia, Capella, The Doyle Collection and Anantara.

In general, these are strong national chains in their respective heartlands which have not – with the exception of Kempinski – made the jump to being global brands.

The full list of members, including sub-brands, is:

• Anantara
• Andronis
• Araiya
• ASMALLWORLD
• Avani
• Bristoria
• Capella
• Cinnamon Hotels
• Corinthia
• Divani Collection
• The Doyle Collection
• Elewana
• JA
• Kempinski
• The Leela
• Lore Group
• Lungarno Collection
• Maqo
• Marco Polo
• Mysk
• NH Hotels
• NH Collection
• nhow
• Niccolo
• Nikki Beach
• NUO
• Oaks
• Outrigger
• Pan Pacific
• Paramount Hotels
• PARKROYAL
• Patina
• The Residence by Cenizaro
• The Set Collection
• Shaza
• The Sukhothai
• Sun International
• Tivoli
• Ultratravel
• Unike Hoteller
• Viceroy

GHA DISCOVERY is the loyalty programme for Global Hotel Alliance

Because of the loose nature of the GHA grouping, it has not been possible to develop a points based redemption programme.  GHA does not have the muscle with its members to make them accept £50+ per night for a reward night, which is all the major hotel programmes pay to their properties if the hotel is not completely full.

Instead, you receive decent benefits plus DISCOVERY Dollars. This is essentially a cash rebate on your spending which you can put towards a future room booking.

Here is the full list of benefits online but in summary:

• Silver is the entry level, given to you immediately when you sign-up.  This is well worth doing.  It gets you access to member-only rates, free internet and 4% back in DISCOVERY Dollars, valid for 12 months.

• Gold requires just two stays or $1,000 of spending but has no real additional benefits, except that your cashback increases to 5% and is valid for 18 months.

• Platinum is their mid-tier status given after 10 nights in a year or $5,000 of spending or, more easily, staying at two different brands in a membership year.  Platinum gives you extra benefits on top – an upgrade to the next room category, a local amenity, 3pm late check-out and 6% back in DISCOVERY Dollars, valid for 24 months.

• Titanium status requires 30 nights, $15,000 of spending or, more easily, staying at three different brands in a membership year. You receive an 11am check-in, 4pm late check-out, a double upgrade, free breakfast at selected brands, a welcome amenity and 7% back in DISCOVERY Dollars, valid for 24 months.

Importantly, brands are VERY good at recognising GHA status because not many people have it.

I have had excellent upgrades over the last couple of years, including on our stay at Kempinski Ciragan Palace in Istanbul, reviewed here.

Be clear: GHA Titanium status is on a par with Hyatt Globalist and Radisson VIP when it comes to the quality and certainty of upgrades given to top tier members. Forgot the treatment you get as an elite at IHG, Accor, Marriott and Hilton!

How can you get a GHA status match?

Here’s the clever bit.

Back in March, we reported that Rotana was joining Global Hotel Alliance later this year.

Rotana operates 80 hotels across the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Turkey.

We know that the existing Rotana Rewards Select programme will become Rotana DISCOVERY in due course. Your existing Rotana Rewards balance will become GHA DISCOVERY Dollars.

Why does this matter? Because Rotana Rewards Select has a long-running status match offer.

If you click here, you can match your Rotana Rewards Select membership to your current status with:

• Marriott Bonvoy
• IHG One Rewards
• ALL, Accor Live Limitless
• Hilton Honors

The match is poorly documented. On the upside, there is no application fee so if it doesn’t work out as planned then nothing is lost.

Rotana is giving out Platinum and Gold status. These are the top two tiers in the Rotana Rewards Select programme.

It is likely that:

• top-tier Marriott, IHG, Accor and Hilton members will receive Rotana Rewards Select Platinum status, which is very likely to become GHA DISCOVERY Titanium status later in 2025

• middle-tier Marriott, IHG, Accor and Hilton members will receive Rotana Rewards Select Gold status, which is very likely to become GHA DISCOVERY Gold or Platinum status later in 2025

You should match using the highest level status you have in the programmes taking part:

• with Marriott, it is difficult to know what Rotana treats as ‘top tier’. Is Platinum enough? I suspect so, but you may need Titanium or Ambassador if they are behaving oddly. What is ‘middle tier’? I suspect just Gold, but it could stretch to Platinum.

• with IHG it is pretty clear – Diamond will get Rotana Platinum, Gold will get Rotana Gold

• with Accor, it is difficult to know what Rotana treats as ‘top tier’. Is Platinum enough? I suspect so, but you may need Diamond (which is quite rare) if they are behaving oddly. What is ‘middle tier’? I suspect just Gold, but it could stretch to Platinum.

• with Hilton it is pretty clear – Diamond will get Rotana Platinum, Gold will get Rotana Gold

My two highest hotel status levels at the moment are Accor Platinum and Marriott Platinum. I suspect I will match from my Accor Platinum because I cannot seriously believe they would restrict top-tier to just Accor Diamond members. I would get Rotana Rewards Select Platinum and that would match me to GHA Titanium, I hope.

(If they mess me about, I can simply open a fresh Rotana account and do another match against my Marriott Platinum card!)

Conclusion

GHA DISCOVERY top tier status isn’t hard to earn from scratch, if we’re honest. Stay at three different brands within 12 months and you are top tier, with upgrade benefits which hotels genuinely respect. Easy.

However, if you want to do it for free, it is worth doing the Rotana Rewards Select match if you currently have a high level of status with IHG, Marriott, Accor or Hilton.

You can join Rotana Rewards Select via the button at the bottom of this page of its website.

You can then complete your status match via this page. Let’s see how it goes as 2025 progresses.