GHA_Insider

Good questions! We are in fact just starting to roll out (as a pilot) the usage of D$ to pay in advance for pre-paid bookings on our website. It's a little more complicated than you might imagine, since it requires separate agreements between the payment gateway provider and each of our hotel brands, as well as functional changes to the website and app. But it is definitely coming!

In the meantime, you can use D$ against any eligible revenues on the folio, as the hotel staff should remind you on check out. Even on a prepaid rate it is common to have eligible extras and in the current covid environment we have seen a large reduction in the proportion of pre-paid rate bookings since the need for hotels to offer flexible cancellation terms has removed most of the benefit (to the hotel) of offering such rates. Nevertheless, we are determined to offer the choice to pre-pay with D$ wherever possible.

I've replied to you privately on that now.

kelix

Anyone here stayed at the fairly new GHA Avani+ Mai Khao?
We're Titanium level but wondering as its Eid what's going to happen for the double upgrade or welcome amenities/benefits if the property is super packed.
Have booked a 1Br pool villa for us and the 2 kids, anyone know if the 3 properties that are all under GHA umbrella have an ability to shift reservations between them? Like Anantara vacation club or the Anantara Mai Khao?
We wanted to book the "all inclusive" offer but that was "rug pulled" from us right as we booked as they removed the inventory mysteriously after we called the property with some questions about the inclusions....

maybe GHA_Insider knows what can happen for titaniums there between the properties or can advise on occupancy there over the next week?

MrML

We stayed there last year December. During our stay they were decoupling Avani+ from Anantara and AVC (i.e. first days we could choose where to have breakfast, later we were only allowed to have breakfast at Avani+). They also told that eventually it will be treated as 3 separate hotels (although while staying at Avani+ you could still use the Anantara beach) with each there own facilities. So I doubt they will shift reservations between them. Regarding the upgrade, I was not upgraded proactively, and had to ask for it while it was not busy at all (we did get late check-out).

kelix

Thanks for the reply MrML. ill make sure to again mention titanium at check-in and hope they they have some availability for an upgrade. I believe they have 2Br villas there too. but I can't see any inventory available online. The 3Br suite looks nice but the pools in the suites look very exposed and not very private.

MrML

kelix I was Black member during my previous visit and booked 2bdr suite, and was upgraded to 2bdr suite with pool. They told me they wont do upgrades from suites to villa's, but in your case it might be different. The pools are indeed exposed in the suites and in our case everyone walking along the path could see our pool. Therefore, we didnt use the pool at all and either used the Avani pool (decent), Anantara beach (good) or AVC pool (great for kids). They did told us to use the AVC facilities we had to inform in advance which we never did. Avani+ and AVC are connected and we could charge F&B on our room without questions. To go to Anantara, you have to cross the road (directly opposite of Avani).

kelix

Thanks, I'll report back tomorrow morning what the current state of play is there. will be interesting.

GHA_Insider

I don't know, I'm afraid. But I would say that Minor Hotels (which operates the Anantara and Avani hotels) is a major shareholder in GHA and is committed to delivering the benefits to DISCOVERY members, so they should do a good job of looking after you. However all hotels around the world have been struggling with recruitment and retention of staff since the pandemic and this has made training and delivery of benefits more difficult. So you may need to remind staff of your benefits at this busy time.

escape4

There is a disturbing number of GHA hotels which sets its own rules for why the +2 upgrade will not happen, including Avanis. From basic room up 2 yes most of the time, but when booking higher level of rooms the roadblocks are not rare.

MrML

indeed, I had the same message at Avani Krabi when checking in that no upgrades to villas, but luckily the manager accidentally dropped by during checkin and upgraded to a villa (although saying this is normally excluded). Previously this was also stated at the Avani website, but I just checked it and now it only mentions “subject to availability”. Same was shown previously on the Anantara website.

GHA_Insider

To be fair to the hotel, the programme rules explicitly state that upgrades to certain categories of room including multi-bedroom suites and villas are at the discretion of the hotel:
Upgrades are subject to the exclusion of certain specialty suites, including but not limited to, presidential and multiple bedroom suites, residences and villas, as determined by the respective Member Brand Hotel.

Having said that, I know that some hotels will push upgrades into those categories. It's always worth asking. I will raise it internally too, since in some ways it benefits a hotel for our elite members to pay a higher base rate and still be double upgraded (assuming there is availability, of course).

escape4

To be clear, I am not directly blaming the hotels: in my opinion they are free to adopt whatever upgrade policy they see fit for their business, be it more generous than the GHA rules or less generous than the GHA rules. If it's the latter then possibly GHA might considering doing something about it (if GHA becomes aware) but in the end when upgrades are slim to none, I am not overly focused about finding the cause between GHA or an individual hotel because the result for the guest is the same. And the more frequently this happens, the less GHA as a whole becomes attractive because upgrades are less reliable regardless of the reason.

The GHA program was already one of the least generous out there, along with IHG. However this year IHG announced a vast improvement in the elite benefits (lounge access + breakfast + suite upgrades) to be able to compete with the likes of Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, and Accor, while at the same time GHA has reduced theirs. There is no breakfast or lounge access benefit with GHA so it leaves upgrades as the lone major perk, when on top of that the +2 upgrades have lots of exceptions to further reduce the value then it leaves GHA well behind the curve compared to the vast majority of competitors.

minz56

I have some D$ which I want to use for an upcoming stay. However, as I would be looking at a prepaid rate I am not sure how to apply the D$ before my card is charged. Hopefully someone can enlighten me as to how to do this. Thanks.

escape4

see post 121

KLflyerRalph

Nice surprise in the email. Won 50 D$ from a recent raffle.

escape4

Same here