Bilt, the loyalty program and hospitality platform that lets members earn reward points on rent and mortgage payments, is entering the B2B travel market.
The company is in the process of building a technology platform for travel advisors that aims to use Bilt's technology to better serve clients.
Bilt is not looking to replace host agencies or consortia, according to Richard Kerr, general manager of Bilt Travel. Instead, Kerr said Bilt's goal is to create a platform for all involved that is additive, about making advisors' lives easier and more efficient.
"I'm not in this for the volume game," he said. "I'm not in this to get as much commission as possible. Where we win is creating a platform that becomes invaluable to all sides of the travel ecosystem, and have a really powerful marketplace where Bilt members win, travel suppliers win, and travel suppliers' customers who may not even be Bilt members yet win."
Bilt describes itself as "a membership program for your neighborhood," Kerr said. Launched in 2021, it's a loyalty program and hospitality platform that offers access to local services. Members can redeem points earned across travel and lifestyle brands that have partnered with Bilt.
Kerr said Bilt has invested heavily in travel: members demanded it be a core part of its rewards ecosystem. It's the No. 2 way Bilt points are redeemed. (No. 1 is covering all or a portion of rent).
The company sells a lot of hotels and flights on the B2C side, Kerr said, but Bilt is now eyeing the B2B space with its advisor platform, currently under construction. It also made a significant investment in the travel advisor community when acquiring commission-management platform Sion in March for $30 million.
Kerr saw the value in the travel agency channel when Bilt created a luxury hotel collection last July powered by Virtuoso.
"The relationship that we made with Virtuoso in order to launch that luxury travel platform is what opened my eyes to the scale of what luxury travel advisors are doing today," Kerr said. "I couldn't believe the amount of luxury travels that these folks are selling in 2026."
However, he also saw the technology many agencies use, from legacy CRMs to Google Sheets.
"They don't have access to things that make their lives easier and more efficient," he said, which is part of the reason Bilt believes its platform could attract advisors.
His team is building that platform now. It promises to address a number of pain points with its capabilities, including online booking, marketing and CRM functionality. That's where Sion fits into the picture, addressing commission reconciliation and faster payment.
Marrying Sion's technology with Bilt's payments infrastructure is particularly exciting, Kerr said.
"We feel travel advisors are going to get excited about, it" he said.
Bilt's agentic AI layer will sit within the platform, and Kerr said it will be able to do as much or as little as advisors tell it to do.
At the lighter end of the spectrum, he said, advisors could tell the AI agent to send a welcome email whenever a new client is added to the system. It can also be more heavily employed to "make your life incredibly efficient," Kerr said.
The platform will likely carry a small monthly subscription fee, Kerr said, to ensure advisors have a stake in the platform. It's still in development, but will likely begin onboarding its first advisor users early this summer, he said.