GLOBAL HOTEL ALLIANCE TO LAUNCH INNOVATIVE LOYALTY PROGRAMME
“GHA DISCOVERY” TO UNITE TWELVE BRANDS UNDER ONE SCHEME; EMPHASIS ON RECOGNITION AND LOCAL EXPERIENCES
Geneva, 10th March 2010. Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) today released the first details of the launch of its multi-brand loyalty programme in spring 2010, which will be the first of its kind in the industry.
Using a sophisticated customer relationship management (CRM) system, specially customised for multiple brands by its technology partner Micros-Fidelio, GHA has created “GHA Discovery”, an innovative loyalty programme, which will enable their customers to receive enhanced service and recognition, while earning experience-based awards across all of its twelve brands and nearly 300 hotels.
Modelled on the airline alliances’ successful philosophy of providing reward and recognition across multiple brands, GHA will use common CRS and CRM technology to enable customers’ membership status and personal preferences to be recognised in all hotels, regardless of the brand they choose.
GHA’s CEO Chris Hartley is very enthusiastic about the programme’s potential: “we’ve studied closely the airline alliance loyalty model, we’ve done extensive customer research; and we’ve established that there is a great opportunity for our independent, regional hotel brands to offer a richer and more exciting programme to customers than those currently available. Today, customers are looking for greater value for their money, as well as personal recognition and they want to feel that they’ve experienced something unique when they travel. Our programme is going to address these three core expectations”.
Hartley believes that it is recognition that will be one of the keys to GHA Discovery’s success. “Anyone can launch a loyalty programme, but if you don’t recognise the customer when he checks in, or you don’t know his personal preferences, you’ve fallen at the first hurdle. We’ve put five years of work into creating a multi-brand technology platform, and we’re convinced that this will make the difference as our alliance now becomes consumer-facing.”
Beyond technology though, GHA Discovery is offering the component that so many customers say they miss in today’s commoditised hotel loyalty environment. Folker Heim, GHA’s Director of Loyalty Marketing, explains “we are going back to the basic idea of travel being about experiencing something different. GHA Discovery is going to offer amazing ‘Local Experiences’ as its awards, rather than a free night somewhere you may not even want to go. Customers will get their airline miles in all of our hotels, because that’s their preferred loyalty currency, but beyond that we’ll be offering something that money can’t easily buy.”
GHA hotel staff have spent the last few months, as part of a cross-alliance on-line community, compiling a database of ‘Local Experiences’ and will offer customers a choice of nearly 2,000 aspirational activities around the world.
“The wealth of awards that we will be offering is quite staggering”, enthuses Heim: “you could choose a safari with a National Geographic photographer teaching you how to take the best shots, a back-stage tour of a West-End musical, or even to be part of the audience at one of Oprah’s last shows, there is really something to suit everybody’s taste and fire their imagination. For members of GHA Discovery, just looking through our list of Local Experiences will be inspirational in itself”.GHA Discovery will launch across all twelve member brands from May 2010.
About Global Hotel Alliance
Based on the airline alliance model, Global Hotel Alliance is the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands. It uses a common technology platform to drive incremental revenues and create cost savings for its members, while offering enhanced recognition and service to customers across all brands. GHA currently comprises of Anantara, First, Kempinski, Leela, Mirvac, Marco Polo, Omni, Pan Pacific, PARKROYAL, The Doyle Collection and Tivoli, encompassing nearly 300 upscale and luxury hotels with over 65,000 rooms across 48 different countries.
For further information, please contact:
Irina Zakharova, Global Hotel Alliance, Geneva
irina.zakharova@gha.com
www.gha.com
