New Loyalty Program Journey Targets Independent Boutique Hotels
Summary
It was founded by CEO John Sutton, the former chief digital officer at Red Ventures, which owns media brands like The Points Guy, Lonely Planet, and Bankrate.Journeys investors include Brian Kelly (The Points Guy founder), Chris Burch (owner of the award-winning Nihi Sumba Resorts), and Eric Wu (the former Opendoor CEO).Journey is one of the first reward programs to cover stays at both hotels and vacation rentals, two categories of lodging that have historically competed.It also aims to drive direct bookings in an unusually explicit way. By incentivizing travelers to book directly, the goal is to reduce commission costs for independent operators.Journey enters a crowded field of lodging loyalty programs. Its also well shy of the roughly 180,000 luxury home rentals and 5,000-plus boutique hotels worldwide that could be the full potential customer base, according to their estimates.Yet once they have a consumer launch, that may change. For property owners using cloud-based property management systems like Mews, Journey will offer an integration that lets it analyze guest data to provide personalized service.James McBride, CEO of Nihi Sumba Resorts and past general manager of the UKs Grosvenor House, said that Journey offers a tech solution to challenges independent operators have faced for years. Hoteliers are betting that the desire for recognition that moment when a staff member greets you by name or remembers your preference for an extra pillowremains a currency at least as valuable as points.Whether Journey can successfully thread this needle creating a program that simultaneously offers the scale of traditional loyalty while preserving the intimacy sought by the independent-minded travelerdepends a lot on execution and having the right talent.