Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) is an alliance of (mostly small) hotel groups that don’t otherwise belong to major hotel loyalty programs, and GHA Discovery is the loyalty program of these hotels.
It’s a fascinating loyalty program for some really stellar brands, like Capella Hotels & Resorts. There’s also often a status match promotion, which is an easy way to elevate your stays with eligible brands. If you want to get as much value from your stays as possible, GHA has just rolled out an intriguing promotion… is it worth it, though?
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Yes, I would say it’s mostly a good deal, but the catch is that when you redeem D$, you don’t earn rewards for that portion of the stay. Ordinarily, GHA Discovery members earn anywhere from 4-7% back on their stays (in the form of D$), so you’re forgoing a 4-7% return in order to save 15%. That still leaves you with an 8-11% spread. However:
- GHA Discovery sometimes has promotions offering bonus D$ for stays, so you’re also forgoing that
- I don’t have firsthand experience with actually buying D$, so I’m not sure how it codes for the purposes of credit card spending; a hotel stay could earn you several bonus points per dollar on the right credit card, but I’m not sure this purchase would code that way
So I think for some people, the math could work out nicely. Like, if you have an upcoming $5,000 Capella stay, then saving $750 on that sounds great. However, it’s not necessarily as much of a slam dunk as you might assume at first glance, when you consider the things you’re forgoing.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
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