GHA DISCOVERY: When will members be able to earn and burn D$ outside of stays?

The GHA DISCOVERY programme received a major shakeup in late 2021, which saw stay-one-earn-one Local Experiences replaced by Discovery Dollars (D$), basically a form of cashback.

Members now earn 4-7% of their eligible spend back in D$, with occasional promotions that boost the rebate by up to 2-3X. 

🏨 GHA DISCOVERY Earn Rates
Tier	Base D$ (validity)
Silver	4% (6 mo.)
Gold	5% (18 mo.)
Platinum	6% (24 mo.)
Titanium	7% (24 mo.)

D$ can be used to offset the cost of rooms, dining, spa treatments and other ancillaries- but only as part of a stay.

When I interviewed GHA’s CEO shortly after the DISCOVERY revamp, he mentioned that the ability to earn and redeem D$ outside of a stay was targeted for “late 2022 or early 2023.” Yet here we are in 2025, and that functionality still hasn’t materialised.

Well, I’ve managed to get an update on the progress, and while the good news is that work continues, the bad news is that there’s still some way to go…

Earning and burning D$ outside of stays: Still a work in progress

I recently reached out to GHA to ask if they’d made any headway on enabling earning and burning of D$ outside of stays, and received the following response.

Yes, we still have ‘earning and redemption of D$’ at our hotel outlets without a stay on the Roadmap and have several markets where this is close to going live, but each have different dependencies which have taken time to develop. Our main focus is rolling out across several hotels in Dubai this year.

-Kristi Gole, EVP for Strategy

If I’m understanding correctly, this functionality likely won’t roll out beyond Dubai (where GHA is headquartered) in 2025. That’s disappointing, especially given how valuable it would be for members.

Of course, there’s no reason to believe that GHA is dragging their feet intentionally. If anything, it’s in their interest to bring this feature online as soon as possible, as it gives members an added incentive to patronise hotel spas and restaurants even outside of stays. 

Moreover, I can’t imagine any sort of IT project is easy for GHA, since it’s more of a marketing alliance than an actual chain. With more than 40 brands on its roster, trying to coordinate any sort of programme-level initiative must be a nightmare.

Therefore, if you have D$ in your account that expire this year, you should be making plans to spend them during a stay, not holding out hope for extra-stay earning and burning to become a reality in the near future.

You can now pay with D$ online

While not really related to earning and burning D$ outside of a stay, one GHA initiative that has made some headway is the option to pay with D$ online.

GHA has been quietly enabling this feature at several of its brands, though they’re admittedly the relatively minor ones. Online D$ payments make it much easier to apply D$ towards prepaid rates, or to redeem D$ for stays that would take place after their expiry. 

If this feature is available, you’ll see an option at the check-out page to apply your D$ towards the booking.

A minimum of D$10 is required, and D$ will be deducted immediately upon confirmation. If you cancel your stay — and the stay is refundable — D$ will be refunded accordingly. However, D$ which have expired will not be reinstated, so take care if you’re booking a stay that takes place beyond your D$ validity period. 

The member redeeming D$ online must be the member staying at the hotel during the associated reservation. 

For all other brands, D$ can be used during a stay at the front desk of a hotel. This is a lot more restrictive, as it usually limits you to booking the more costly pay-at-hotel rates, not to mention your D$ may have expired by the time the stay takes place.

Conclusion

While GHA has made some progress on enabling the earning and burning of D$ outside of stays, members shouldn’t be expecting a programme-wide rollout this year.

Instead, the concept will be piloted at selected properties in Dubai, so unless your travels bring you there, you might want to make other plans to burn your D$ in conjunction with a stay.