A Luxury Afternoon with DISCOVERY Loyalty

We seem to be members of every hotel loyalty card programme there is going. Since we are fairly frequent travellers, it makes sense to sign up for the various loyalty programmes as you usually get benefits like free wi-fi or room upgrades just for doing it, and that's before you've even started collecting any points. I was aware of DISCOVERY Loyalty since we'd signed up for their programme to get the free room upgrade when we stayed at the Anantara Qasr Al Sarab Hotel a couple of years ago, though I don't think we've used the programme since, and I had really just assumed that it was just an Anantara loyalty programme. So when I was contacted recently by the company and invited out to enjoy a luxury experience with them and one of their partner properties, Emirates Palace, I soon learned that it's not just an Anantara loyalty programme - it's a whole lot more that you'll really want to know about. Read on my friend, read on...

They had us picked up in style from our homes and chauffeured us to the Emirates Palace (who are one of the many brands in the loyalty programme) in the hotel cars... now that's a way to travel I can tell you... Not only was the car about the most comfortable vehicle I think I've ever had the pleasure to sit in, it also had wi-fi! Yes - wi-fi in a car, who knew that was even a thing?! It was certainly an impressive start.

On arrival we were greeted in the usual Emirates Palace style and received a welcome gift along with all the coffee and dates we could gobble. And from there, it was on to the marina to begin our first experience. I knew we were set to be going out on a boat - but I had no idea it was going to be a boat like this... Wow, what a boat it was!

We sailed out of the marina and onto the Gulf, as soon as we were away from shore the music started, and so did the fun...

Suitably impressed and after an incredible afternoon - there's no doubt we'd have all gone home happy at that point, but no, it was on to the next experience, the Bedouin Tent and Camel rides (and more Arabic coffee!).

And this is all very nice, but you're probably wondering why I'm telling you all about this is aren't you?! Yes, quite. Well, this is the really good bit. It turns out that the DISCOVERY Loyalty programme isn't just any old loyalty programme, and it's not even just for one brand of hotels. It's a hotel loyalty programme with hundreds of different global hotels and brands all under one umbrella! Finally, there's actually a hotel loyalty card that doesn't require you to stay with only one hotel group to actually gain any decent traction beyond the initial sign-up freebies! And more than that, the offering is really genuinely worth getting excited about for us frequent travellers...

On joining the programme you start out as a Gold member, with the next tier, Platinum being available after only 10 nights, which is pretty easily achievable when you look at the amazing range of hotel brands they have in their portfolio. So it's fair to say I'm now on a mission to get to Platinum since the benefits include an automatic upgrade to the next room category at check-in, late check out until 3pm and a local experience just like the ones I went on above! From there the Black tier offers even more benefits including even more local experiences, early check in and later check out until 6pm (how amazing is that?! Perfect for making the most of your last day's stay), double upgrade on check-in and loads more too.

Frankly, after the unbelievable day we all had, I'd be signing up just to get my mitts on the free local experiences alone!

Check out their website for more information and see for yourself why I'll be doing my best to book my hotel stays within their alliance in future, and how you can be sailing off into the sunset for free too! And no - I promise this isn't a sponsored post, I just genuinely think this really is a worthwhile hotel loyalty programme for a change...! And on that note, I'm off to plan my next trip... :)