Buy Global Hotel Alliance stay credit at a 15% discount – is it worth it?

Global Hotel Alliance, and its GHA DISCOVERY loyalty programme, has pushed 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, with 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 double or triple points offers

We ran a separate piece here which provides a full overview of GHA DISCOVERY and is 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.

GHA is selling points again – and it can work out well

GHA DISCOVERY started selling its loyalty currency, DISCOVERY Dollars, last year via two limited time offers.

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.

Until 19th June 2025, you can buy DISCOVERY Dollars at a 15% discount to face value.

You can buy up to D$5,000 during this promotion, in one or multiple transactions.

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

• if you are staying in the UK, you may incur FX fees on your credit card to buy DISCOVERY Dollars which you would avoid if you’d paid for your room in cash

• you can’t use DISCOVERY Dollars on pre-paid stays at some brands, except to pay for food and drink charges added to your final bill

• you can’t use DISCOVERY Dollars against the taxes element of your hotel bill, only the base rate

• your DISCOVERY Dollars will expire after 24 months

• 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, but you would have got 4% to 7% back in DISCOVERY Dollars, depending on your elite status level, if you’d paid cash for your room.

This means that buying DISCOVERY Dollars is a better deal for non-elite members, because you are giving up fewer D$ had you paid cash for the room. If you have no GHA status and are only going to earn 4% back then getting a 15% discount by pre-paying for D$ instead is a good deal.

Remember that, if there is a bonus DISCOVERY Dollars promotion running when you stay, the benefit of buying D$ will reduce even further.

My stay at Çırağan Palace Kempinski Istanbul

Last August we stayed at Çırağan Palace Kempinski Istanbul, which is probably the flagship Kempinski hotel in Europe.

Our review of Çırağan Palace Kempinski Istanbul is here. As I’d booked via GHA, I had the opportunity to test out the ‘buy points’ feature as the offer was running at the time.

We’d booked one room in my name and one for the kids in my wife’s name. This allowed me to buy the 2024 annual cap of $1,500 DISCOVERY Dollars per account, so $3,000 in total.

I paid $2,550 for $3,000 of credit, saving 15%.

I only bought the points once we had checked into the hotel. I wanted to remove any risk that I might be stuck with $3,000 of 24-month expiry credit. Once we’d checked in and I was sure we wouldn’t be storming out due to some crisis (!) I went ahead.

It is a VERY slick process if you go via the GHA DISCOVERY app, because you can use Apple Pay (and presumably Google Pay too). There is no need to dig out your payment cards. Your DISCOVERY Dollars balance updates immediately.

Now, I hadn’t REALLY saved $450 (15% of $3,000 of credit). I would have got 7% back in DISCOVERY Dollars had I settled that part of the bill in cash because I have top tier Titanium status. However, I was FAR happier – unsurprisingly – with an immediate $450 saving rather than $210 of ‘expires in 24 months’ hotel credit.

It is important to note that there was no bonus $ promotion running for stays when I booked. This is another reason not to buy DISCOVERY Dollars until you’re already checked in. If a ‘double Dollars’ or ‘triple Dollars’ promotion launches, and you were able to rebook at the same rate, you may be better off paying cash.

Quick reminder: you can only redeem against ‘Eligible Spend’

If you are planning to do this, remember that you cannot settle 100% of your bill with DISCOVERY Dollars.

Taxes, tips and fees are not included. The key element is VAT or the local equivalent. On a £1,000 UK stay, you could only redeem (assuming no tips on the bill) £833 which is the ex-VAT element.

Buying D$ is not a permanent offer

The ability to buy DISCOVERY Dollars comes and goes. This opportunity runs to 19th June 2025.

If you have a GHA stay coming up, this may be your only chance to buy D$ at a discount to reduce the cost.

Even if you’re not interested in buying now, if you are booking a ‘pay on departure’ GHA stay (or pre-paying but planning to spend on food and drink in-house) in the future, it is worth keeping an eye out for ‘buy DISCOVERY Dollars’ promotions.

You can, until 19th June, buy DISCOVERY Dollars on this page of the website.