NEW YORK CITY — Investors and developers affiliated with legacy brands have launched a new loyalty platform and network for independent hospitality operators and travelers. Designed for boutique hotels, resorts and short-term rentals, Journey was developed to provide independent operators with tools to compete with their branded counterparts on both loyalty and the guest experience, generating word-of-mouth as much as repeat business.
Journey was developed by CEO John Sutton, former chief digital officer at Red Ventures, parent company of Lonely Planet, The Points Guy, Healthline and Bankrate. Advisors on the project have included Brian Kelly, founder of The Points Guy; Chris Burch, co-founder of Tory Burch; Eric Wu, founder of Opendoor; and James McBride, hotelier and CEO of NIHI.
Taking a page from the airline industry's alliance model, the Journey network aims to drive value through alignment rather than standardization. For the operators, the platform provides both real-time guest insights and an AI-powered system to manage offers, dispatch workflows and personalize at scale. For the guests, Journey provides a single, flexible currency and tiered status program across a curated network of properties, rewarding direct bookings with 5 times the points per dollar and letting guests pool or transfer points across the network.
Talking with Hotel Management during a reception at New York City’s Fifth Avenue Hotel—an early adopter of the platform—Sutton acknowledged that independent hoteliers have had options in terms of loyalty programs or marketing partnerships, but said he wanted to create something different. Citing a behavioral economist (who he declined to name), Sutton said that great loyalty programs are not economical, but psychological. Rather than building a program that revolves around points, he said, he wanted to focus on connecting psychologically with the end user: “What are they trying to do? What do they want to do? And then the points can be a driver of how they accomplish those things.”
To attract and keep travelers in the system, Journey requires participating properties to offer members the best available rate—and to be the only loyalty program they use throughout the length of the agreement and for a year afterwards. “That's obviously an uphill battle for a startup,” he acknowledged. “It means that our relationships with our partners have to be deep enough that they trust [us], that they believe in what we're doing.” Ahead of the platform’s official launch, more than 70 organizations and more than 1,400 properties signed contracts to join, Sutton said, estimating that the platform has more than $300 million in gross booking value.
Inspiration
During a virtual media roundtable, Sutton said that he developed the program when he noticed that he was spending an increasing amount of time seeking “real world, physical experiences. … And I'm not alone. I think a lot of us are seeking to engage more in the physical world, and a lot of the ways we do that is through hospitality experiences.”
Moreover, Sutton continued, “some of the best experiences in the world are also some of the most undiscovered.” In terms of hospitality, those undiscovered experiences are most often found in independent hotels or properties run by independent operators. “And I started wondering, what if we could give the powers that we had created at times at Red Ventures around personalization, around technology, and arm some of these independent operators with the opportunity to compete with the big corporates?”
To that end, he said, “we saw an opportunity to create something that was more than just a free bottle of water and a bag of chips at check-in, but something that was personalized to me and where we could feel known.”
Personalized Service
During the reception, Sutton said that the Journey team had spent the past year selecting member properties and determining what they could offer that stood out. “What we don't want on the platform is just pure shelter,” he said, acknowledging a need for short-term rentals and traditional hotels for certain types of stays and trips. “But if you want more of an experience, and you're willing to go a few miles that way, … we'll bring you to a place that will be more memorable. And maybe it's worth the trip.”
In order to find “authenticity” and unique experiences in travel, he noted, users have had to toggle among hotel apps, home-sharing apps and tour apps—often unsure of the quality of what they were booking. “And so we set out to, over time, try to solve that.”
Sutton said that guests will spend more with hotels that provide personalized services across a range of price points. “They'll stay more with you. They'll tell friends about you—and that's how you make money,” he said. While larger hotel companies have larger memberships in their loyalty programs, Sutton argued that except at the luxury level, the franchise model makes it difficult for hotels to customize what services they can provide at the property level for different guests. This leaves a niche for independent hotels to fill. “A certain category of travelers—and a growing category—wants this experience: something that makes memories and something that feels different. And if I'm gonna spend my money in a world where I don't have unlimited, disposable income, I want to spend it on something that feels more memorable.”
Artificial Intelligence
The platform utilizes AI to help properties personalize guest experiences, enhance operations and drive direct bookings, which aims to reduce reliance on third-party channels and commission-heavy intermediaries. “Time is the greatest luxury we have,” Sutton said during the media roundtable, adding that the platform can “give time to the operators … to spend on service.”
Through a mobile app, guests can determine what kinds of hotels they want to stay in and what they want to do once there, “teaching” the program what will make them happy once they’re on site. The platform also learns from messages guests send the hotel before and during their stay, and guests have the option to link their social media accounts to their Journey profile. “We're trying to use that to make more intelligent recommendations for you,” Sutton explained, both from the parent company and at the property level. Through this user-shared data, he hopes Journey will better understand what each user needs. “We can become that travel companion and that AI agent that really understands your travel preferences,” Sutton said.
The company’s proprietary Hospitality Experience Platform directly connects with a property’s existing systems, including property-management systems, commerce tools and messaging platforms. This infrastructure enables real-time personalization and automates key touchpoints throughout the guest journey. AI-powered agents support operators by identifying guest behavior patterns, triggering tailored offers and orchestrating service workflows.
As of its launch, Journey has more than 1,400 properties as part of its alliance and platform—“and that's growing every day,” Sutton said. Inaugural members include Nihi Sumba in Indonesia, Onera in Texas and Dunton in Colorado.