EVERYONE WANTS to get a bit extra these days, even, and some would say especially, those who stay in top level hotels. Not surprisingly hotel groups are responding with special offers and privileges to entice people to stay longer.
This week the Global Hotel Alliance, the world’s largest association of independent luxury hotels, has launched the GHA Discovery programme, with 300 hotels, including the Doyle Collection, offering perks to regular business travellers and tourists that include nights at the opera, spa visits, wine and food events and watersports.
Here’s how it works: members who sign up to the loyalty programme and stay 10 nights or more at GHA hotels can expect benefits, such as automatic room upgrades and late check outs, as well as free newspapers and internet access. These are fairly standard privileges but GHA is also promising rewards in the form of local experiences, it says, that business travellers can fit in between meetings, or tourists can enjoy in a more leisurely way.
After just one qualifying stay at a GHA hotel in Dublin – such as the Doyle Collection Westbury – members can learn the art of pulling the perfect pint of Guinness while further afield guests can qualify for a private cruise on the Potomac or a sunset drive through a nature reserve in Namibia.
GHA includes hotels in the Kempinski, Mirvac and Omni groups which share a central reservation system at gha.com.