The Wolseley and Cheval aparthotels join Global Hotel Alliance – we chat with CEO Chris Hartley

I spent two days in Brussels recently as the guest of Global Hotel Alliance, attending their annual meeting of brand CEOs.

I managed to sit down with the CEO of Global Hotel Alliance itself, Chris Hartley, to discuss two new developments which would interest UK readers or visitors. These involve The Wolseley restaurant group and the Cheval Collection group of aparthotels.

GHA paid for my travel and my stay at Corinthia Brussels where the event was held.

Global Hotel Alliance is a marketing group used by over 45 upmarket hotel brands with a total of 850+ combined properties. This will grow to 1,000 when Rotana, and some as yet unamed new partners (including two big UK names), join later this year. It is the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands.

Kempinski is the biggest one you might be familiar with.  Other big names include Pan Pacific, Corinthia, Capella, The Doyle Collection, NH Hotels and Anantara.

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

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

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

There is also an earn partnership with Plum Guide apartment rentals (which I used last year and got a decent rebate on what I paid) and Regent Seven Seas cruises, which I covered here.

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+ for a reward night, which is all the major hotel programmes pay to their properties if the hotel is not 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.
• Gold requires just two stays or $1,000 of spending but has no real additional benefits, except that your cashback increases to 5%
• Platinum is the mid-tier status given after 10 nights in a year or $5,000 of spending or, more easily, staying at two different brands.  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.
• Titanium status requires 30 nights, $15,000 of spending or, more easily, staying at three different brands. You receive an 11am check-in if available, 4pm late check-out if available, a double upgrade, free breakfast at selected brands (a new benefit, the brand list is constantly growing), a welcome amenity and 7% back in DISCOVERY Dollars.

The ability to reach Titanium or Platinum status by staying at just two or three brands is very interesting and could be achieved relatively cheaply.

(Note that NH Collection, NH Hotels and nhow are treated as one brand for the purposes of earning status, which removes the cheapest option of hitting Platinum and Titanium in Europe.)

Whilst cashback-style reward schemes like DISCOVERY do not allow any arbitrage on redemptions ($1 = $1 off a room, so there are no bargains on peak pricing days), the upside is the ability to redeem against any room type.

You are not restricted, as you are with Hilton or IHG, to redeeming only for standard rooms which often don’t work for families or those looking for lounge access, premium views etc.

You can receive Gold status with a subscription to Business Traveller magazine – see here – with a fast track ‘three night’ route to Platinum. This isn’t necessarily a lot of use, because Platinum status usually requires just TWO stays at different brands, or ten nights at the same hotel.

How has GHA developed?

GHA CEO Chris Hartley originally joined Trusthouse Forte before moving on to Kempinski, the German hotel chain. This was owned by Lufthansa at the time, which meant that it was able to get free advertising on the back of every Lufthansa ticket issued. This is back in the old days of multi-part paper tickets stapled into shiny folders!

Kempinski was sold in 1994 to Thai group Dusit Sindhorn, although it now has a majority Bahraini shareholder. Having lost its free promotion on Lufthansa ticket wallets, forming a marketing consortium seemed like a good way of rebuilding its distribution capability.

Global Hotel Alliance was launched in 2004 with the first iteration of a loyalty programme launched in 2010. The programme was overhauled in November 2021 when ‘DISCOVERY Dollars’ were launched.

Because GHA is a marketing consortium, there are different dynamics at play compared to other large hotel groups.

If you are a hotel owner and adopt a Marriott brand, you need to join Bonvoy – it comes with the package. If you are a small chain such as The Set Collection, however, deciding to join a scheme such as GHA is totally voluntary. The hotel group needs to see that it can generate real value from its membership.

The house rule is that entire chains must join – Corinthia London, for example, couldn’t join without bringing the rest of the Corinthia chain with it. A typical deal runs for five years, but in reality GHA claims an excellent long term retention rate – losses are primarily due to chains being taken over, such as Alila (went to Hyatt) and Rixos (to Accor).

Interestingly, GHA brands can have their own sub-brand inside the loyalty programme. Stay at any Pan Pacific hotel, for example, and the programme is advertised as ‘Pan Pacific DISCOVERY’. This helps to cement the link between the individual brands and the programme, which is often an issue with marketing groups.

Whilst the big groups try to adopt the names of their sub-brands (‘Hampton by Hilton’, ‘Delta by Marriott’, ‘Courtyard by Marriott’ etc), GHA does not have that flexibility to get its name, literally, on the door.

Chris’s view, which I can agree with, is that by hand-picking individual brands GHA can offer a higher overall quality of hotel. Would you prefer to stay at a W (Marriott) or at a Nikki Beach or Viceroy (GHA)? Corinthia and the Cafe Royal in London would generally be seen as higher quality than anything the ‘big six’ global groups have to offer.

Indeed, whilst I’m sure Chris isn’t too happy about it, he should probably be flattered that three GHA hotels have left the group this year after being taken over by Mandarin Oriental, in Paris, Amsterdam and Venice.

New development #1 – The Wolseley is partnering!

In what is a bit of a coup, The Wolseley restaurant group, which comprises:

• The Wolseley on Piccadilly
• The Wolseley City
• The Delaunay in Aldwych
• Brasserie Zédel in Soho
• Colbert in Chelsea
• Manzi’s in Soho
• Bellanger in Islington

…. is becoming an earn and burn partner of GHA. You will be able to spend your DISCOVERY Dollars in any of their restaurants, as well as earn Dollars on cash meals.

This partnership is possible because the restaurant group is now under the same ownership as Anantara, NH Hotels, nhow, Tivoli etc – Minor Group.

This is not yet live so don’t try it out. We can hopefully give it a go and run an article showing how the process works.

New development #2 – Cheval Collection is now integrated, get D$50 for trying it

Cheval Collection has just joined Global Hotel Alliance. This is a group of nine aparthotels in London and two aparthotels in Dubai. Their website is here.

(Aparthotels are having a bit of a moment this year, with Sonder joining Marriott on top of Cheval joining GHA. Cheval’s Edinburgh properties have just defected to Marriott. We are planning a larger feature on aparthotels in a few weeks.)

You will receive D$50 as a bonus on your first Cheval Collection booking if you book by 31st August 2025 and stay by 30th June 2026.

There is no minimum stay required.

The only bit of small print is that the D$50 bonus will expire after 12 months, whilst D$ earned from stays have an expiry date based on your status – 12 months for Silver, 18 months for Gold and 24 months for Platinum and Titanium.

Get D$25 free for joining!

Here’s an extra bonus. If you are not a member of Global Hotel Alliance, you will receive D$25 (valid for 12 months) when you join via the Cheval website.

There is no obligation to redeem your D$25 at a Cheval property. You can redeem it at a Kempinski, NH, Anantara etc property or at a restaurant in The Wolseley group when they are integrated.

Thank you to Chris for his time, and for the invitation to Brussels.