The Marmara Joins GHA: A Global Loyalty Model for Independent Hotels

The Marmara Hotels, a local hotel brand in Turkey, has joined the Global Hotel Alliance’s global loyalty program GHA DISCOVERY. Poland-based PURO Hotels is also joining the alliance as part of this expansion.

The two brands will bring a total of 15 hotels into the system. The Marmara’s six properties in Turkey are already accessible through GHA DISCOVERY. PURO Hotels’ nine hotels are planned to be included in the program in the third quarter of 2026. These participations also mark them as the first local Turkish and Polish hotel brands within GHA.

The significance of this development in hospitality is greater than just a new loyalty card.

The model shows a way for independent hotels to access a global customer network, loyalty infrastructure, and direct booking tools without being sold to large international chains or giving up their brand identities.

The Marmara’s six properties are now part of the system

The portfolio of The Marmara included in GHA DISCOVERY encompasses properties in Istanbul, Bodrum, and Antalya. GHA’s current platform lists The Marmara as a new member brand; the brand’s own site has also actively started using the DISCOVERY program.

According to The Marmara’s official program page, members can earn DISCOVERY Dollars, or D$, from eligible stays and hotel expenditures; they can use these for future eligible hotel expenses and access additional privileges based on their membership level. The program consists of Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Titanium levels.

The brand is also encouraging direct bookings during the GHA membership period. According to The Marmara’s official announcement, there is an extra D$50 campaign for members who make direct bookings by October 31, 2026, and complete their first eligible stay between September 1, 2026, and May 31, 2027.

The commercial message of this campaign is clear: the loyalty program is used not only to reward guests but also to drive bookings to the brand’s own channel as much as possible.

GHA has reached 36 million members

The Global Hotel Alliance defines itself as the largest global alliance of independent hotel brands.

As of August 2026, GHA announced its current scale of 55 brands, approximately 1,000 hotels, 100 countries, and 36 million GHA DISCOVERY members. According to the results announced by the alliance for 2025, the room revenue generated through the program reached $3.2 billion, and the number of room nights reached 12.8 million. GHA also reports that 97% of elite members' bookings occur through direct channels.

These figures are GHA’s own performance data; they should not be considered as independent audited industry averages.

Nevertheless, they demonstrate why the alliance model has become attractive for independent brands.

Establishing an international loyalty program with tens of millions of members on one’s own is expensive.

It requires technology infrastructure.

It requires CRM.

It requires member communication.

It requires customer acquisition in different countries.

It requires managing the reward currency.

GHA shares this infrastructure among numerous independent brands.

The middle ground between independence and scale

One of the classic ways to grow in international hospitality is to join a large chain.

Franchise.

Management agreement.

Soft brand.

Brand transformation.

Each of these can increase a hotel’s distribution power; however, depending on the agreement, they can also bring varying levels of central control over brand standards, fees, design, operations, or commercial decisions.

The claim of the GHA model is different.

The alliance aims for member hotels to benefit from a shared loyalty and marketing infrastructure while preserving their individual brand identities. GHA defines its value proposition as enabling independent hotel brands to compete globally and generate additional revenue through direct channels.

This approach is particularly meaningful for The Marmara.

A company with established brand recognition in Turkey can access an international customer pool while maintaining its own brand name instead of adopting the name of an international chain.

The real value of the loyalty program lies in cross-brand usage

The main issue for an independent hotel in a loyalty program is scale.

If a guest comes to Istanbul once a year, it may be difficult for them to actively connect with a program consisting of only a few hotels in Istanbul.

However, if the same guest can use the same program when traveling to Bangkok, Dubai, Madrid, or Singapore after Istanbul, the meaning of the loyalty currency changes.

In GHA’s system, D$ can be earned and used across different member brands. The alliance reported that cross-brand revenue from stays at GHA brands different from the brand members registered with increased by 15%, reaching $424 million in the 2025 results.

One of the opportunities for The Marmara lies precisely here.

Instead of only reselling to its past guests, the brand can also reach customers who are members of other hotel brands within GHA but are traveling to Turkey.

The reverse is also true.

A Turkish guest who joins the program through The Marmara may prefer GHA hotels in other countries.

Also significant in terms of the direct booking battle

One of the strategic functions of loyalty programs in hotel distribution is to reduce OTA dependency.

OTAs are strong in access and demand generation. However, the commission cost per booking and the management of the customer relationship by the platform have long been debated topics among hotels.

GHA’s value proposition particularly emphasizes direct bookings and repeat stays. The alliance states that GHA DISCOVERY aims to create repeat stays, additional hotel spending, and cross-brand usage through direct channels.

Therefore, interpreting The Marmara’s participation in the system merely as “providing discounts to guests” is incomplete.

One of the main commercial goals is to keep the customer relationship within the hotel and the alliance’s own ecosystem in the long term.

Here, important KPIs will not only include the number of new memberships.

Direct booking rate.

Member and non-member customer ADR difference.

Repeat stays.

D$ usage rate.

Members’ F&B and other expenditures within the hotel.

Customer volume from other GHA brands.

These will show whether the program is truly generating value.

A new service standard is needed from the employees' perspective

Participation in the loyalty program is not just a project of the sales and marketing department.

The reception staff needs to recognize the member's status.

The reservation team needs to be aware of the program conditions.

The F&B staff needs to understand which expenditures are covered by D$.

Privileges such as room upgrades, early check-in, or late check-out must be communicated correctly based on availability conditions.

If the benefits promised to the guest are visible in the system but the employee cannot implement them, the loyalty program may generate complaints instead of positive experiences.

It is especially noted that some top-level privileges in The Marmara’s official program are subject to availability and program conditions.

Therefore, the success of the integration depends as much on technology connections as on frontline employee training.

PURO Hotels will also use the same model

On the other side of the GHA expansion is Poland-based PURO Hotels.

The brand’s nine properties will join GHA DISCOVERY in the third quarter of 2026. PURO is growing through city hotels that relate to design, gastronomy, art, and the culture of their neighborhoods. The brand plans to expand into new markets such as Budapest and Prague in addition to its presence in Poland.

The inclusion of The Marmara and PURO in the same expansion package also reflects the brand profile that GHA is looking for.

Rather than a completely standardized global hotel product, brands with a strong local identity that want to attract international customers.

The current structure of the GHA CEO Committee includes Naci Başerdem, CEO of The Marmara Hotels, and Rune Askevold, CEO of PURO Hotels, confirming that both brands are included in the alliance at a corporate level.

What does it mean for independent hotels in Turkey?

There are many strong hotels and local chains operating outside of international brand frameworks in Turkey.

While some of these businesses may be competitive with international chains in terms of products and services, they do not have the same resources in terms of distribution and loyalty scale.

Alliance models create a third option here.

Remain fully independent.

Transform into an international chain.

Or connect to a shared technology and loyalty infrastructure while preserving brand identity.

The third option is not automatically correct for every business. The membership cost, integration burden, reservations coming through the program, and direct channel gains must be calculated separately.

However, the example of The Marmara shows that local hotel brands in Turkey do not have to consider only franchising or selling their brand for international growth.

Stafflink’s perspective

In our view, the most important aspect of the The Marmara–GHA collaboration is not just access to a pool of 36 million members.

The real issue is offering a new business model between independence and scale.

Local brand identity is becoming increasingly valuable in hospitality. Guests are looking for hotels that relate to the destination rather than seeing the same design and experience everywhere in the world.

However, the cost of independence may be technology, distribution, and customer acquisition costs.

Alliances like GHA are trying to bridge the gap between these two sides.

For The Marmara, the success of the program should not be evaluated by the announcement of “joined GHA,” but rather through more concrete indicators after a few seasons:

Did international member bookings increase, did direct channel share grow, did repeat stays rise, and could the hotel generate higher lifetime value from this customer?

If these questions are answered positively, the model could become a stronger alternative for other independent hotel brands in Turkey.