Luxury hotel alliance ups the ante with loyalty rewards

HOTELS have been looking for ways to stand out from the crowd in a bid to attract more customers amid the economic downturn.

Some have cut prices, others have offered an extra night’s stay for free, while others offer complementary dinners.

However, the Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), which is the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands, recently launched its own initiative called GHA Discovery, which is the first ever loyalty programme uniting independent luxury hotels around the world.

It works in a way that it recognises a guest’s loyalty and rewards them according to the number of nights stayed rather than the number of points they have accumulated.

The programme offers the rewards across 12 international hotel brands and nearly 300 hotels globally. In Ireland, The Doyle Collection’s three hotels — The Westbury, The Croke Hotel and The River Lee Hotel — will be offering the programme to guests.

The programme provides access to more than 1,000 “local experiences” which are designed by the local hotel employees, and many provide exclusive access to off-the-beaten path activities around the world.

The membership to the programme is across gold, platinum and black categories. Guests can qualify for the gold programme by spending up to nine nights in a participating hotel. They can avail of a local experience while they will also get a complimentary newspaper, internet access and bottled water.

Moving up to platinum level, which is up to 10 nights stay, guests will be treated to a better selection of local experiences, a room upgrade and late check-out until 3pm. Up to 30 nights stay at a participating hotel qualifies guests for platinum level where the local experience choices range from a rugby match in New Zealand or backstage access to The Kennedy Centre in Washington DC. Guests will also get a double upgrade at check-in and early check-in beginning at 9am and late check-out until 6pm.

The local experiences vary at different levels, but after just one qualifying stay at a GHA hotel, gold level members can learn the art of pouring a pint of Guinness in Dublin, or take a sunset drive through a nature reserve in Namibia.

Guests who reach the black level membership can enjoy a private cruise along the Potomac in a former Presidential yacht, a helicopter tour over LA or develop their own customised ring tone at Microsoft Studios in Seattle.

Chief executive of The Doyle Collection, Bill Walshe, said: “As a leading GHA member we are delighted to offer this exclusive programme to all of our valued guests here in Ireland, the US and across our UK properties.

“GHA Discovery is an exciting new initiative that gives us the opportunity to provide our guests with fantastic local experiences that truly immerse them in the local culture of their destinations. The programme also means that our regular guests who enjoy our personalised service can be sure that no matter where they stay in the world, it will meet all of the high service standards they are accustomed to receiving when staying with The Doyle Collection.”

The reward programme is based on the airline alliance model and five years of technological development, collaboration, research and strategy went into creating the programme.

Chief executive of the GHA, Chris Hartley, said: “GHA Discovery was built with the philosophy that recognition and authentic, local experiences — and not just collecting points — are the true pillars of a rewarding hotel loyalty programme.”

GHA includes Anantara, The Doyle Collection, First, Kempinski, Leela, Mirvac, Marco Polo, Omni, Pan Pacific, PARKROYAL, Shaza and Tivoli hotels and resorts.