Skift Take

Global Hotel Alliance crosses a billion in revenue for the first half of the year, helped out by high room rates in its home city of Dubai.

Josh Corder

The UAE-born Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) has posted combined room revenues of $1.3 billion for the first six months of this year, 18% more than in the first half of 2023.

Founded in 2010, Global Hotel Alliance acts as a booking platform and a loyalty scheme for a network of small and independent hotel groups. While its number of loyalty members is just over one-tenth the size of Marriott’s – around 27 million members – the majority of the hotels working with GHA are luxury names.

GHA represents 40 brands with more than 800 hotels in 100 countries. Member brands include Leela Hotels, Kempinski, Corninthia, Minor Hotels and Capella. GHA’s business model is to help hotels rely less on third-party booking platforms while increasing their global reach online.

Here are some other key stats from GHA’s first half of the year:

• Total room nights between GHA-affiliated hotels increased 17.3%.
• GHA direct website and app bookings increased by 40% versus the first half of 2023.
• During the period, the average spend per member was 57% higher through GHA’s direct channels compared to other third-party channels.
• Loyalty memberships increased by 19.5% compared to the first half of 2023, a similar level of annual growth Hilton has seen with its loyalty scheme.

While GHA is based in the UAE, it’s largely an international business. In terms of feeder markets for stays, the UK and U.S. guests were on top. GHA loyalty members in the U.S. delivered more total room revenue than any other market ($110 million) with 72% of that attributed to overseas trips, while UK members generated the second highest total room revenue ($69 million), 87% of which was international.

Looking at individual markets, it was UAE hotels that generated the highest room revenues for the period. Within the UAE, Italy, the UK and Russia were its top feeder markets. Singapore was the second most popular destination, driven by members in China and Australia.

The average price of a hotel room in Dubai right now is $160, according to the city’s tourism department.

Accommodations Sector Stock Index Performance Year-to-Date

What am I looking at? The performance of hotels and short-term rental sector stocks within the ST200. The index includes companies publicly traded across global markets, including international and regional hotel brands, hotel REITs, hotel management companies, alternative accommodations, and timeshares.

The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. See more hotels and short-term rental financial sector performance.

Read the full methodology behind the Skift Travel 200.