The Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) is the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands, representing a collection of 40 brands with more than 800 hotels in 100 countries. Through membership in GHA, brands expand their global reach, drive incremental revenue, and reduce dependence on third-party channels, all while maintaining management independence and individual positioning.
GHA provides its members with a multi-brand loyalty program - GHA DISCOVERY - leveraging a shared technology platform. The award-winning program serves 26 million members and generated $2.3 billion in revenue and 10 million room nights in 2023.
Headquartered in Dubai, the group is celebrating its 20th anniversary and just launched a new report revealing the perceptions, preferences, and priorities of today’s travelers. You can read the highlights of the new report, revealing “What Travelers Want Most From Loyalty Programmes” here.
In the official press release, GHA’s Executive Vice President of Strategy, Kristi Gole, commented, “In celebrating two decades of GHA’s success, our latest report confirms what our members value most, and it’s clear that quality of accommodation, room upgrades, transparent rewards, and seamless experiences are paramount.”
Kristi was gracious to sit down with Wise Marketer’s Bill Hanifin to talk about key outcomes of this research and how GHA Discovery stacks up against the global market of travel loyalty programs. This interview is lively and move quickly. If you want to focus in on specific areas of the discussion, we provide you with time stamps here:
:50 – A quick overview of Global Hotel Alliance (GHA)
1:43 – A little bit about Kristi Gole
4:47 - Highlights of new research from Global Hotel Alliance
7:49 – What features in travel loyalty programs do “travelers want.”
10:47 – Loyalty program benefits that delight frequent travelers
11:31 – Benchmarking GHA against the market
13:55 – Wrapping up
