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Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), the world’s largest alliance of independent hotels brands, has reported a “stellar” nine-month performance that has “exceeded its most optimistic forecasts”.
Total revenue generated by the 22 million members of its GHA DISCOVERY loyalty programme hit over $900m (£812m) in the period, marking a 68% increase on 2021 while reaching 84% of pre-pandemic levels on a like-for-like basis.
According to the group, a combination of higher average rates and a 20% increase in average length of stay globally from January to September versus the same period in 2021, driven by pent-up demand for leisure travel, contributed to the results.
The 2022 summer holiday season gave a particular boost to business, with August proving to be the second-strongest month ever, delivering revenues “just shy” of March 2019’s record performance.
Elsewhere, the average length of stays across all markets globally increased further in Q3 2022 against the prior year. Europe (64% increase in length of stay), Oceania (31%) and the Middle East (11%) were the top performing regions.
The most visible signs of post-pandemic travel rebound were reported for Phuket and Bangkok, Thailand with 535% and 345% growth in revenues respectively compared to 2021, followed by Honolulu, Hawaii with 305% and London, UK, with 300% growth.
According to GHA, despite the ongoing disruption to air travel and the effect of pandemic-related restrictions, more than 60% of GHA DISCOVERY revenues came from international stays, with this proportion growing “strongly” over the summer months.
The highest-spending international travellers came from the USA (£69m), UK (£64m) and Germany (£54m), representing over a quarter of total revenues.
GHA CEO Chris Hartley said: “Our 2022 performance to date has exceeded all expectations, not only demonstrating travel’s enduring attraction, as it bounces back from the pandemic, but the success of our growth strategy, underpinned by the reinvention of GHA DISCOVERY and the addition of new hotel brand partners to our alliance.
“With D$ redemptions giving repeat and cross-brand stays a huge boost, we are delivering more new revenue streams to our hotel brands. Typically, these redemptions are being used as part-payment for a guest’s total bill, and overall our brands are witnessing an average 17 times return on investment from the new programme, a 21% lift compared to ROI delivered by the former version of our loyalty programme.”
He added: “With the leisure travel rebound accelerating into Q4, business travel steadily on the up, evidenced in revenues from our major corporate accounts recovering to 81% of 2019 levels by the end of Q3, and with more D$ going into circulation, we are confident of a positive outlook for the full-year 2022 and heading into 2023.”
