Tl;dr – Recapping a recent ‘dilemma’ I encountered when booking an upcoming stay.
In today’s hotel landscape, numerous associations, affiliations, and marketing organizations offer properties partnership opportunities. As a result, it’s not uncommon for a property to be bookable through multiple channels simultaneously – and that’s not even counting Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). I’ll be visiting Dublin in a few months on a larger ATW trip, and as such, I found myself looking for a hotel. Last week, I wrote about a similar phenomenon involving a property bookable on both Hyatt and Hilton. This time, I found myself choosing between Leading Hotels of the World and GHA Discovery.
I chose the Anantara The Marker Dublin for its strong reviews and its relative unfamiliarity to me.
I’ve never stayed at an Anantara property before and have only stayed at 1 or 2 Minor Hotels in all my days traveling. There’s an active American Express offer where I can save $100 on purchases totaling at least $300 in room rate and room charges at select Minor properties, and Anantara is a brand that qualifies.
I’m planning to split the cost of the stay across two targeted Amex cards, for $200 cash back right there. I referenced a similar deal with select luxury Hilton properties just yesterday.
Noticing that Anantara is both a Leading Hotels of the World property and a GHA Discovery property, I decided to see which property might offer the best all-around deal on the booking.
First, I searched GHA Discovery, a program I’m hopeful of earning high elite status with once its acquisition of Rotana is complete.
I was able to find a premium king room for €825.60. My GHA basic silver membership doesn’t provide much, but it would include 4% back in D$ rewards currency towards a future luxury property booking.
Notably, the room was a premium king room – the cheapest available on GHA’s site.
I then turned my attention to Leading Hotels of the World to see what the Anantara The Marker Dublin was going for on its platform.
There I found the same premium king room, for just a few dollars more – €835.20.
€9.60 isn’t a material difference, so my next course of action was going to see how much reward value I’d earn from each program, to see if that could be a determining factor.
…but then I remembered something. Even as a base-level member in the Leaders’ Club – Leading Hotels of the World’s membership program, you’re eligible for some pretty decent benefits, including:
- Upgrade priority at arrival
- Daily continental breakfast for two
- Early check-in and late check-out considerations
Additionally, as this would be a paid stay, I’d also unlock a pre-arrival upgrade for my next stay. Though the upgrade and check-in/out benefits aren’t guaranteed, the breakfast is, and I planned to spend most of my time exploring the city, so I wasn’t too concerned about the room.
To make matters even better, I noticed a few other rates hidden in a drop-down on the site. One rate was actually for a cheaper deluxe king room, which would cost €675.50 all-in, and sure enough those Leader Club Benefits were noted.
Fantastic. Maybe I’d get lucky with that upgrade priority after all and end up in the same premium room, or better?
Leading Hotels of the World takes this round.
