Tl;dr – With backing from Lerer Hippeau and Slow Ventures, the AI-native platform aims to renew ‘loyalty’.
Interesting news in the points and miles world today. The Points Guy, Brian Kelley, and John Sutton have launched Journey, a new platform that allows travelers to book accommodations and earn points towards future stays. Coined as “Loyatly That Learns”, Journey has closed a $7.7 million seed round led by Lerer Hippeau and Slow Ventures.
Both Kelley and Sutton believe loyalty to be fundamentally broken, and so they hope that Journey will inject more transparency into the ecosystem. Here’s how it works: Travelers will earn five points per dollar spent by booking directly through their platform, with each point worth about two cents, equating to a 10% rebate, which can be instantly redeemed during stays.
The AI component is said to involve tracking individual preferences and behaviors to create a more tailored experience.
I just went through the sign up process and you can see evidence of this. As part of the questionnaire I was prompted to fill in some of my travel patterns and though I skipped it, there was the opportunity to add my social media handles.
Sutton and Kelley met each other during their shared time under the Red Ventures envelope. The Points Guy was acquired by Bankrate, which in turn was acquired by Red Ventures, where Sutton worked as chief digital officer for Red Ventures.
Over the years, we’ve seen several attempts by upstart players seeking to make inroads on the more traditional travel loyalty landscape. There’s been different angles, and to date the most successful/notable effort has been Bilt, using pay-your-rent as wedge into the transferrable currency game.
This is fresh out of the fridge, but with the names involved, and buzzwords like AI and ‘influencers’, I’m sure this won’t be the last we hear of Journey.
