#261: Building Bilt Rewards from Strength to Strength

PAULA: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for Loyalty Marketing Professionals.

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PAULA: Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty, featuring industry veteran, Dave Canty, head of loyalty and partnerships at Bilt Rewards, one of my favorite loyalty propositions to emerge in recent years.

PAULA: Dave joined us on the show in August, 2021 to introduce this exciting brand new concept of rewarding members of their program, simply for paying their rent on time.

PAULA: Bilt Rewards has a mission and a purpose to support landlords, tenants, travel brands and banking and lifestyle partners, all as important stakeholders and all who see the incredible benefits of tracking and rewarding the otherwise mundane behavior of paying your rent.

PAULA: But Bilt Rewards does it in a way that creates an exciting path to home ownership.

PAULA: Or alternatively, members can enjoy more affordable travel options to plan the trip of their dreams.

PAULA: I hope you enjoy the latest insight from Bilt Rewards as it continues its impressive growth and continues to make rent more rewarding.

PAULA: So, Mr.

PAULA: Dave Canty, welcome back to Let’s Talk Loyalty.

PAULA: I’m extremely well.

PAULA: I’m very glad to have you back on the show, Dave.

PAULA: You’ve been-

PAULA: Honestly, I’ve been excited looking at everything you’ve been posting on LinkedIn.

PAULA: Of course, my main source of professional knowledge.

PAULA: So, it’s been a year since you were on the show last year and introduced our audience to Bilt Rewards, and you have done some incredible work.

PAULA: I think when we talked before, you were literally saying, it’s like week by week, you’re launching new things.

PAULA: So today, we’re here to update our global audience and remind them, I guess, as well, Dave, I think about the proposition because I still think it’s the only proposition of its kind in the world for good reason.

PAULA: But before we get into Bilt Rewards in 2022, as you know, my opening question this year is understanding what your favorite loyalty program might be from a personal perspective.

PAULA: So let’s kick off with that.

DAVE: Well, it’s a big question because there’s so many really good loyalty programs out there.

DAVE: And I’d like to think that I’ve been part of many great ones.

DAVE: But I would say my favorite program at the moment is probably World of Hyatt.

DAVE: It’s a hotel program.

DAVE: And I’ve worked in the hotel space for a number of years, obviously with Starwood and subsequently IHG.

DAVE: And of course, IHG just announced their new program with IHG One Rewards.

DAVE: But I became a member of World of Hyatt maybe a couple of years ago.

DAVE: And I found that program to be very, very easy to kind of use and get the benefit from.

DAVE: And thankfully I’m on a globalist within the Hyatt program now.

DAVE: But the recognition and the benefits that you get within the program really ring through to me.

DAVE: So yeah, I’d say World of Hyatt is the one that’s in the box seat for now.

PAULA: Wonderful, wonderful.

PAULA: And just I’ll tell the audience, I didn’t actually tell Dave, I was going to ask him that, so I put him on the spot.

PAULA: So well done, Dave.

PAULA: Sorry for throwing you under a bus there.

PAULA: But no, what I really like though, Dave, is as you said, you have extraordinary career and loyalty.

PAULA: Anyone who doesn’t know Dave Canty, make sure to look up his LinkedIn profile and connect with them.

PAULA: But I think what you’re talking about, Dave, is first of all, I absolutely agree that Easy is the first prerequisite for any loyalty program.

PAULA: Because at the end of the day, we’re all super busy.

PAULA: The last thing we want is to wade through terms and conditions to understand what the consumer benefit might be.

PAULA: And then even when we talked last year about your favorite statistic, Dave, I remember you talking about redemption being the most important thing.

PAULA: So the fact that you’re able to benefit from World of Hyatt, it means absolutely it’s delivering for you as an individual.

PAULA: So even if you didn’t have the loyalty career and expertise, you would know exactly to be able to avail of the World of Hyatt program.

PAULA: So let’s get back to Bilt Rewards, Dave.

PAULA: As I said at the start, it was last August when you were on Let’s Talk Loyalty introducing this idea that rent can be rewarding.

PAULA: A dramatic concept, definitely one that I don’t think anyone had even ever considered.

PAULA: And I was just watching all of your videos, actually, Dave, of course, on the content side.

PAULA: And it seems that the average spend on rent is $200,000 for an average person.

PAULA: So an extraordinary figure of unrewarded spend, which Bilt Rewards has found a way to build rewards propositions.

PAULA: So tell us, how are things going just in general for Bilt Rewards since you launched last year?

DAVE: Yeah, it’s kind of been extraordinary, actually.

DAVE: It’s funny that you say it’s been a year in August, and we actually only celebrated our year in production in the wild, as it were, in June.

DAVE: So there was a lot of work done pre-launch, obviously, getting ourselves prepared.

DAVE: But in the last year, obviously, just to kind of reiterate the value proposition, yes, Bilt Rewards is all about making rent rewarding and allowing you to earn points on rent.

DAVE: But we also have a much bigger mission, and that’s kind of building a pathway to home ownership over time.

DAVE: Because everybody’s largest monthly expense is rent.

DAVE: And right now, unless you’re part of the Bilt Rewards program, you don’t necessarily get anything at all for it.

DAVE: It’s kind of money thrown away.

DAVE: So what we noticed was there was an opportunity to not only reward it, but also report on it in such a way that it builds your credit history.

DAVE: So we did add that element to the program since I spoke to you last.

DAVE: It’s important for young people to be able to build their credit scores.

DAVE: And it’s kind of crazy that your largest monthly expense doesn’t get reported to the credit agencies, so it’s not building your credit score.

DAVE: Bilt Rewards now does that.

DAVE: We report on time payments to the credit bureaus, all three of them.

DAVE: So what that does is it allows you to continuously build your credit score.

DAVE: And hopefully, when it does come to time where you want to move away from rent and go into homeownership, the cost of getting a mortgage is greatly reduced because you have a higher score.

DAVE: So that’s one of the amazing things that we’ve done.

DAVE: And we’re continuing to keep our ear to the ground.

DAVE: And listen to our members all the time about what are the things that you like about the program?

DAVE: What are the things that you think we could do better and so forth?

DAVE: I think I mentioned our CEO, Ankur Jain, the last time out.

PAULA: Yeah.

DAVE: So Ankur is a very kind of engaged CEO at every level of the business.

DAVE: And he continuously wants to learn about what customers are saying.

DAVE: And so he does send an email out to customers on a very regular basis.

DAVE: And he also is a CEO who responds to people who come back to him, which is incredible because I could be sitting at home on a Sunday and all of a sudden I get an email and it’s Ankur responding to a member and copying me in if there’s a loyalty related element that he thinks that we should consider.

PAULA: Yeah.

DAVE: So what I love about that is continuously listening to your customer and understanding that while we’re very proud of what we’ve created, we can’t just rest on our laurels.

DAVE: We’ve got to continuously ensure that we’re listening to what’s going on and seeing if there’s ways in which we can continuously improve.

DAVE: So we did that, and on top of introducing the rent reporting, we also built functionality in the app as well that allows you to set up auto pay so that your rent payment automatically goes every month, and there’s nothing to worry about.

DAVE: Your points get deposited and so forth.

DAVE: However, it’s also important to remember that as you’re accumulating these points, people have got to understand how to use them.

DAVE: And we’ve placed a lot of focus on not just giving people options, but also giving them tips, and we’ve created a lot of editorial that is very educational.

DAVE: And one of my team members, Richard Kerr, came to us from the points guide.

DAVE: And Richard is very adept at looking at how to get the best value out of multiple programs across the spectrum.

DAVE: So by looking at our partnership ecosystem, Richard will basically create content and say, hey, if you were thinking about traveling here, here’s how you can get there by using your build points with our partners, and here’s how you’re going to get the most value.

DAVE: We also have created content with Jonathan Lawless.

DAVE: Jonathan is a veteran from the housing kind of space.

DAVE: So he went, he spent many, many years with Fannie Mae, and he kind of brings a wealth of knowledge in educating young people about the steps that they need to kind of take to get to home ownership, and also kind of what are the watch outs that you’ve got to look for.

DAVE: So we’re creating that type of content as well.

DAVE: So the educational element is huge, because while everything that we’re doing is kind of from our perspective, it’s intended to allow people to get the most value out of the program.

DAVE: So those are a couple of things that we’ve done.

DAVE: There’s many more, and I’m sure we’ll talk a little bit more about those as we go.

DAVE: But I’m quite proud of those, because that kind of allows us to have this very kind of holistic view in how the program kind of continuously evolves.

PAULA: For sure.

PAULA: And it’s almost difficult to pick which one to start with, Dave.

PAULA: But I guess the credit reporting that you mentioned is the first huge new benefit for your members.

PAULA: What struck me on that one, Dave, is of course nobody ever intends to be late paying their rent.

PAULA: I mean, that’s pretty much a given.

PAULA: But I was thinking about it from the perspective of your landlord community and how delighted they must be that there’s another reason for their tenants to pay them on time, because now there’s actually a reason, I guess, beyond the obvious.

PAULA: But there’s a longer term reason for people to make sure that that gets done.

PAULA: So I always love loyalty programs when they take all of the stakeholders into account, take care of all of their needs.

PAULA: So I’m just imagining you must have wonderful relationships with the actual community of landlords.

PAULA: I can’t remember the name that you use for your…

PAULA: The Bilt Alliance.

PAULA: Thank you.

DAVE: The Bilt Alliance, yeah.

DAVE: And the Bilt Alliance, yes, you’re absolutely correct.

DAVE: The Bilt Alliance is made up of a number of truly tremendous real estate partners and owners.

DAVE: And I have to give significant credit to our growth team and our real estate team for building relationships there.

DAVE: And by continuously listening to them as well about what’s important to them.

DAVE: And one of the great things about Bilt Rewards is not only are we a value proposition to the renter, we’re also a value proposition to the landlord, because we’re essentially not only allowing them to attract the right renters who basically they can trust to pay on time, but also retain good renters, because now they have a currency that they can use to basically say, hey, if you’d like to renew for another year or whatever, I’m happy to kind of sit down with you and negotiate on awarding you next number of Bilt points.

DAVE: So that’s something that we’ve created.

DAVE: It’s a program now that the landlords can kind of use as a tool to not only attract new renters but also retain high value renters as well.

DAVE: And continuously building credit scores allows them to not only do the renters benefit from that, of course, but the landlords have a level of security in the sense of these are actually high quality renters that I’m happy to have in my building.

PAULA: And it struck me, as much as the consumer proposition hadn’t occurred to anyone except your founder Ankur, it even sounds to me like the real estate industry themselves possibly had never considered the idea of a loyalty program in order to, as you said, both identify and retain profitable tenants.

PAULA: So it seems amazing as well that we all missed this massive opportunity until now.

DAVE: You know, sometimes the most simple ideas are the best.

DAVE: And if you think about it, writing checks today to pay rent is so kind of 1980 in some ways.

DAVE: And getting rent to the digital age, it seems kind of just a simple thing.

DAVE: I noticed that there was an announcement in Dubai now where they’re looking at digitizing it.

DAVE: But really kind of getting to a way that allows people to actually use their phone to actually pay rent, it’s just simple.

DAVE: So yeah, we’re going to continue to look for ways that kind of make the app even more kind of intuitive.

DAVE: But you know, the other thing as well is we look at the payment platforms within the Bilt Alliance, and we want to make sure that Bilt is making that easy, not just for the tenant, but for the landlord as well.

DAVE: So building technology that allows the renter to pay in a very seamless way, and indeed the landlord to receive those rent payments efficiently, it’s a no-brainer.

DAVE: And then of course, there’s reporting that goes with that and so forth.

DAVE: So yeah, it’s great.

DAVE: Building a loyalty program with the value proposition that appeals to all stakeholders is really the holy grail.

DAVE: And that’s where we are.

PAULA: Yeah, yeah, no, it is.

PAULA: It’s incredible.

PAULA: And I’ve said to you before, I do wish I was in the US or I wish you were in Dubai, because yes, we love where we rent, but we do resent the payment of rent for nothing in return.

PAULA: And again, I think, even as I think about our mindset in our home country of Ireland, renting was just something that we were all, I suppose, brought up to avoid because of this idea that it was dead money and it was a waste and whatever.

PAULA: So absolutely wonderful that you’re finding ways to build it for everybody.

DAVE: Sorry, hopefully we’ll get enough learnings and we’ll perfect it in such a way that allows us to become portable at some point and look at other markets as those become available.

DAVE: But right now, obviously, the United States is a big enough market for us to focus on.

PAULA: Yeah, one thing at a time.

PAULA: And I think I was trying to push you on that last year and you were very clear.

PAULA: You were like, no, we have a lot of work to do.

PAULA: So so remind me actually, Dave, what is the membership number in the US at the moment?

DAVE: So just we’re a year in now and we’re approaching we’re approaching about half a million members now.

DAVE: And we’re still kind of rolling out.

DAVE: So we have in the Bilt Alliance, we have access to about two million apartments, but we’ve only rolled out to about, I don’t know, 20 percent of those.

DAVE: So the so the uptake within the first 30 days of activating a property has been significant.

DAVE: So, you know, we’re getting we’re getting people we’re probably getting between a 35 and 40 percent activation rate in the first 30 days.

DAVE: Of announcing a property.

DAVE: So it’s it’s been it’s been really tremendous to see.

PAULA: Wonderful.

PAULA: Yeah, that that’s extraordinary.

PAULA: And again, it’s the kind of thing people will tell each other about.

PAULA: So I can just imagine the tenants in each of the buildings, you know, explaining the proposition to each other and over time.

PAULA: So that will continue.

DAVE: Exactly.

DAVE: Because if you think about it, you know, we are we’re predominant.

DAVE: Not just a young program, but we’re made up of young people as well.

DAVE: So our renters are mainly kind of, you know, millennial and Gen Z.

DAVE: And that is a population that does kind of talk to each other.

DAVE: And there’s a lot of advocacy and recommendation that goes on across that generation.

DAVE: And that was why when we were kind of building out the travel element of this, that’s actually a generation that hasn’t necessarily kind of attached themselves to any specific travel program.

DAVE: And we felt that by building out a really good ecosystem that allows them to have access and choice in travel, would allow us to stimulate the love of travel as well.

DAVE: And it was kind of ironic that we kind of launched in the middle of COVID when travel was kind of restricted.

DAVE: So there was kind of, where travel possibly wasn’t even a consideration at one point for that younger generation, now it is because they’re looking at ways in which they can explore beyond their local areas.

DAVE: And even though the globe now has become an attractive proposition.

DAVE: So we think that by continuously kind of working and listening to them and building out the value proposition, that we’re stimulating a love for travel as well.

DAVE: And that’s why we put a lot of focus in to the travel side of the program and making Bilt Rewards and Bilt Points, giving the utility to those in the travel space is an important part of what we’re doing.

PAULA: Yeah, I’ll definitely want to explore that a bit more in a minute, Dave.

PAULA: But a couple of things, even on what you just talked about.

PAULA: I mean, I think we’ve both seen an awful lot of research with exactly this demographic you’re talking about, Dave.

PAULA: In fact, I think you did a lot of consulting work specifically around Gen Z and millennials, if I’m correct.

PAULA: Back to our last conversation.

PAULA: So anything I’ve seen was always this conclusion and concern, I would say, for all of us in the loyalty industry, was that loyalty programs in general were just not resonating.

PAULA: They were extremely cynical.

PAULA: And when we think about it now through the lens of what you’ve created, of course, they were cynical.

PAULA: They didn’t have enough spend on airlines or even on grocery, dare I say, to ever earn anything to make them excited.

PAULA: So I think this is the first time they can even appreciate, oh, there’s a currency and there’s reasons and there’s benefits for behaving in certain ways.

PAULA: So why would I not do that?

PAULA: It’s incredible.

DAVE: It is incredible.

DAVE: Well, I think what we’ve done as leaders in loyalty over time is we’ve allowed complexity to creep in.

DAVE: You know, as programs mature, more and more terms and conditions come to the fore.

DAVE: And even though you try and improve programs by adding new benefits and so forth, sometimes you lose sight of the fact that by adding things and putting, you know, asterisks and, you know, super, you know, super tax kind of one, two, threes, and so forth, you’re adding a layer of complexity and friction that this generation are just not interested in.

DAVE: And they will literally switch off and say, I’m not interested.

DAVE: Do not make me do the math, because that’s not what I’m about.

DAVE: So there’s a real importance within the loyalty kind of space for program managers to think about stripping back and reconfiguring the programs to make it so simple for people to use and understand that they don’t have to think about it.

DAVE: I spoke at the very top about these destination fees and amenity fees and so forth.

DAVE: People should never have to think about that kind of stuff because you turn up in a hotel, you think that you’ve got a hotel room for, let’s say, $200 a night.

DAVE: And when you go to check out, it’s $249 because, oh, yeah, there’s this fee.

DAVE: That kind of thing really kind of gets in the throat of the younger generation.

DAVE: And we’ve got to think about better ways to either disclose it, you know, right up front, and basically say, or bring it in as a benefit within your program.

DAVE: That, look, if you’re loyal to me, I’m going to make sure that you’re not going to get kind of blindsided by certain things.

DAVE: By the way, I’m not having to go out the hotel industry.

DAVE: I’m just using that as an example.

PAULA: Of course.

PAULA: Yeah.

DAVE: But I do think that there’s an opportunity for all loyalty programs to really think about how they can remove the friction elements of the program to get customers much more engaged.

DAVE: And at Bilt Rewards, we’re continuously looking for ways to make it frictionless and simple.

DAVE: Now, have we cracked the nut?

DAVE: Probably not.

DAVE: As I kind of go through our app experience every day, I think it’s tremendous.

DAVE: But it would be kind of naive of me to kind of think, okay, my experience is that of everybody else’s.

DAVE: And that’s why anchors out there listening, along with everybody else, by the way, it’s not just Ankur, but I just use him as an example.

DAVE: But we’re all out there kind of trying to understand what are the things and what’s the experience like for everybody else and how can we continue to stay improved.

DAVE: And that’s what we’ve been doing.

PAULA: Yeah, yeah.

PAULA: No, it’s a good mindset.

PAULA: And I was smiling away to myself as I was thinking of my own kind of partnership negotiations over the years back in my days with O2 Priority.

PAULA: And my self-imposed rule for any partner was you can have one asterisk.

PAULA: That’s it, you know.

PAULA: So you can have, let’s say, two for one, and you can exclude maybe the weekend.

PAULA: I totally get that it has to make commercial sense for the partner.

PAULA: But if you then say, oh, and only before four o’clock, or once you start saying and, and, and, it totally upsets everybody.

PAULA: So I completely get it.

PAULA: And yeah, one asterisk is the maximum allowed in any partnership that I do.

PAULA: So quite funny that focus on simplicity and I guess genuine integrity as well about recognizing and rewarding people.

DAVE: Absolutely.

DAVE: I mean, you’ve basically made a promise to that customer about the fact that, look, I would like you to be loyal to my brand.

DAVE: And in order to, in order to kind of earn that loyalty, I’m promising you a value proposition that I shouldn’t be making it difficult for you to understand.

DAVE: So it’s just kind of, you know, keep it simple.

DAVE: That’s what it’s all about.

PAULA: Yeah, sure.

PAULA: But I love the fact, as I said, the mindset that Bilt Rewards has as a company and the focus on, you know, what is the experience that every individual is having.

PAULA: And even to go back to the piece that you were telling us a bit about, Dave, in terms of the education piece.

PAULA: So I did have a look on your YouTube channel.

PAULA: We’ll, of course, make sure to link to it in the show notes.

PAULA: And I was looking at, you know, your team, as you said, talking from, you know, their expertise, maybe in the past with the points guy and now literally kind of, you know, explaining how to get from the US to Hawaii on, you know, various different airline partners, hotel partners, including World of Hyatt was a great example.

PAULA: And just to be able to understand the booking process, the education piece was incredible, you know, to even understand, oh, if I use this booking engine, that’s just an indication of the points required versus this booking engine is actually live inventory with that level of points.

PAULA: So as a consumer, and again, clearly, I’m not in the US loyalty market, even as a consumer, and I just found that content amazing and a really important part of your strategy by all accounts.

DAVE: It really is, you know, it’s kind of funny when we first came out with the proposition of make rent rewarding.

DAVE: One of the most asked questions we got was what’s the catch?

DAVE: And we had to keep saying there is no catch at all.

DAVE: And one of the things that we want to make sure that we’re doing is allowing people to really understand the ins and outs of all programs so that they can actually get the full benefit, not just from Bilt Rewards, but from our partners as well.

DAVE: Yeah.

DAVE: You know, and we want to make sure that Bilt Rewards members are engaging with our partners.

DAVE: You know, it’s kind of a win-win-win, not just for Bilt, not just for our member, but also for our partners, because, you know, we are going out, and we’re working and developing relationships with all of these partners.

DAVE: And the reason that we’re doing that is because we want our members to get the full benefit.

DAVE: And it’s important that we introduce that educational element.

DAVE: And, you know, one of the things, we actually have gone out to partners ourselves and said, look, we would like to have your permission to kind of talk a little bit more about your program, not just Bilt, but we would like to talk about your program and create content that allows our members to understand how to use your program as well.

DAVE: So you’re going to see more and more of that as we go, because at the end of the day, kind of giving people content like that, that they can kind of always go back to and reference, or even point their friends to, to say, hey, I watched this and it’s worth having a look at.

DAVE: So yeah, there’s a lot in there, whether it be in the Bilt Rewards app or whether it be on the Bilt Rewards YouTube channel.

DAVE: Absolutely, I’d encourage people to go in and have a look.

PAULA: Yeah, and what it looks like you’re as well doing, Dave, is there are, I suppose, influencers or, you know, I suppose just trusted personalities that are talking.

PAULA: And even as I said, yes, I was looking about, you know, redeeming on travel, but also there was lovely videos about, you know, flower arranging, which I just thought was super nice and quite unexpected.

PAULA: I’m not, you know, somebody who’s ever dabbled with flower arranging, but I was kind of looking at the wonderful presenter going, Oh, she looks cool.

PAULA: Oh, I can do that.

PAULA: That’s amazing.

DAVE: So, yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, I suppose we’re a lifestyle brand in many ways, and we want to be relevant in all aspects of your life.

DAVE: You know, and we do that not just through content and so forth, but it’s also about making sure that as we build out our partnership kind of ecosystem, whether it be travel, fitness, housing, and there’s going to be more.

DAVE: You know, we want to make sure that every kind of thing that we do, whether it be an added benefit or an added partner, is something that’s relevant to your life.

DAVE: And that’s how we kind of approach conversations with partners as well.

DAVE: We want to be a program that allows people to understand that we are relevant to you from the very first day of rent all the way to home ownership.

DAVE: And by building out that ecosystem in the middle, you get that.

DAVE: And it’s not only kind of building out, but also being a trusted source.

DAVE: And that trust is a very big kind of word in the loyalty space.

DAVE: Now, it’s easily lost, and it’s also very important to make sure that your recovery process is in place.

DAVE: So, you know, inevitably, there’s going to be one or two customers that you’ll disappoint.

DAVE: Not intentionally, but there’s something that will go wrong.

DAVE: But it’s how you actually address that and recover from it.

DAVE: That will really test whether that person will be loyal to you on a go-forward basis.

DAVE: And in some cases, it reaffirms the relationship based on, you know, if you go through a good recovery and you show good intent, I think that’s hugely important.

DAVE: And, you know, that’s something I’ve always been conscious of in all of the programs that I’ve worked in.

DAVE: But I’m very proud of our customer service team at Bilt.

DAVE: They look at this as if it’s their own baby, as it were, and our members are part of their family, and they want to make sure that they’re taken care of.

DAVE: And if things kind of need to get laddered up, everybody kind of jumps in to try and solve whatever the challenge is if it’s raised.

DAVE: So customer service is a very, very big deal.

DAVE: And one of the other things that happened, actually, since we last spoke, was we announced our partnership with Wells Fargo.

DAVE: Wells Fargo is one of the largest banks in the United States, and there is a brand that is very powerful in the housing space as well.

DAVE: And it was important for us to ensure that we were able to come to the table and say, hey, we can be the perfect partner for you.

DAVE: And so we’ve established a terrific relationship with the Wells Fargo team, and that allows us to kind of think about how do we continuously evolve the program long into the future.

DAVE: So lots going on there as well.

PAULA: Lots going on there as well.

PAULA: And just to finish the other, I suppose, observation on your kind of content and education strategy, Dave, I did even say, see wonderful things, as you mentioned, where people can kind of point to each other, where it’s simple things like what is a mortgage?

PAULA: You know, I mean, it is still quite shocking that we don’t learn it in school.

PAULA: You know, for lucky, we learn it at home.

PAULA: But if not, then, you know, where are you going to for advice on those sorts of things?

PAULA: So to even have that kind of content, as you said, to support that big mission of, you know, people who are renting but on a bigger pathway to home ownership.

PAULA: I think there’s an awful lot going on there that I can see is coming through and really working at every level for your members.

DAVE: Yeah, I mean, financial wellness is certainly something that we’ve got to ensure the younger generation have full visibility and and comfortability within.

DAVE: So yes, we’re going to continuously create content that is educational in that regard.

DAVE: We’re going to look at partnerships that allow us to bring financial health as well and education.

DAVE: Wells Fargo is going to be one of those partners.

DAVE: And you know, even from an investment perspective as well, we want customers to feel like we’re continuously looking for ways that make sense to them.

PAULA: Yeah, yeah.

PAULA: The final bit I wanted to ask about, Dave, today was the other amazing partnerships I saw you announcing.

PAULA: Two of the biggest brands in the world, dare I say it, certainly in the lifestyle space, Expedia and Amazon.

PAULA: So tell us what you’ve launched for Bilt Rewards with these two giants.

DAVE: Yeah, so Expedia have been a great partner to work with.

DAVE: So what we started to do, and this again comes back to stimulating travel for the younger generation.

DAVE: while we’ve got terrific loyalty partners that allow members to transfer their built points into airlines and hotels directly, and there’s true value in doing that, we also wanted to make sure that we made it easy for members to book directly in our app.

DAVE: So the built travel portal is powered by Expedia, and that obviously opens up the globe, you know, for whether it be airlines, whether it be car, hotel, or even kind of experiences that you want to take part in when you get to that destination.

DAVE: So we just announced that the weekend of July 4th, actually, which was, you know, it was kind of very exciting for us because I think we announced it on June 30th, kind of going into the holiday period, understanding that everybody will have already had their travel plans and they’ve already done that.

DAVE: But we wanted to kind of, when they come back from their travel, kind of know that now it’s easy, through Bilt, to kind of continuously look for your next thing.

DAVE: So we’re truly delighted to be working with Expedia in that regard.

DAVE: Even within the Bilt app, and I know that you don’t see it outside of the United States, but when you actually go into the booking portal, you can actually also search with our partner airlines directly in there.

DAVE: So like, you know, with American Airlines, there’s actually a drop down that allows you to search for award flights directly in American in the app.

DAVE: You can drop down to United Aeroplan.

DAVE: So all of that is again, it’s about removing friction and making it easy.

DAVE: And you know, I’m I’ve been in travel for most of my life.

DAVE: I encourage my kids to travel.

DAVE: My daughter is about to move over to London and go to her first year in college there.

DAVE: And to me, that’s a great experience.

DAVE: And you know, you get to enjoy different cultures.

DAVE: You get to kind of see different the world through different eyes as it were.

DAVE: I want to make sure that we stimulate that amongst our members and making it easy to do so is important to us.

DAVE: So that’s on the travel side.

DAVE: We also announced a significant partnership with Amazon.

DAVE: obviously delighted to be a partner with Amazon because again, it comes down to making things easy.

DAVE: And we know that our members are shopping in Amazon.

DAVE: And I wanted to make sure that they have the utility to be able to use their points on Amazon.

DAVE: So we created a partnership with them that allows Bilt members now to kind of go in and on checkout, they can select to use their points to check out.

DAVE: Right now, that relationship is only open to Bilt MasterCard holders, but we’re hoping to extend that beyond to the broader base, but lots going on, lots more to come, Paula, there’s so much that we’re continuously working on.

DAVE: But I’m very excited about those.

DAVE: I mean, those are two extraordinarily huge brands, and for them to kind of place their faith in a one-year-old company that is really trying to kind of make a in the world, I feel it’s quite validating in some ways.

DAVE: And it means that we’re obviously doing something right, because when we start looking and, you know, I kind of talked about the feedback again, and we’re always interested in hearing, you know, is the Bilt Rewards program really kind of delivering on its message?

DAVE: And the answer is yes, and we’re getting that back in spades.

DAVE: And, you know, obviously, as we kind of go out and add additional partners into the program, it’s important that we have the product there that we can stand behind.

DAVE: You know, we’ve built great relationships in the influencer community.

DAVE: And the blogger community.

DAVE: And a lot of people kind of asked me about how, why is everybody talking about Bilt Rewards?

DAVE: And the true point there is it literally is a great program.

DAVE: It’s a world class program that we make it easy for them to write about.

DAVE: We’re not feeding them any scripted stuff.

DAVE: You know, they’re free to make their own judgments and their points of view.

DAVE: And thankfully, most of that has been truly positive.

DAVE: But it’s important as well for us to listen to what they’re saying.

DAVE: But if you deliver a great program, you’re making their life easy as well.

DAVE: It’s easy for them to write about it.

PAULA: Yeah, yeah.

PAULA: I’ve often said publicity, PR, whatever term you want to use is the single best form of marketing.

PAULA: It’s the obvious word of mouth on steroids, dare I say.

PAULA: So I really believe it’s too expensive to do all our own communications, no matter what product you have.

PAULA: So you do need the media to drive awareness of it for you.

PAULA: So it’s obviously working extremely well, huh?

DAVE: It’s working really, really well.

DAVE: We’ve established great relationships.

DAVE: We have the trust that’s going there where if somebody has a very deliberate question, we answer it very transparently.

DAVE: we just point them to the app, and we do let that audience know ahead of time when things are calming so that they can prepare.

DAVE: But that’s as much as we do.

DAVE: We just basically say, this is what we’re doing.

DAVE: We’re very excited about it, and we hope that it’s going to be meaningful, and we invite them to have a look at it and make comments.

DAVE: And right now, it’s something that we’re proud of the relationships that we’re building there.

DAVE: Long may that continue.

DAVE: But we can’t lose sight of the fact that we have to be continuously listening as well, you know, to every stakeholder, whether it be the customer, the landlord, partner, our influencer, blogger, whatever.

DAVE: We want to make sure that we’ve nailed it.

PAULA: Well, I think on that note, I’m going to say I think you’ve nailed it.

PAULA: So far, so good.

PAULA: And I’m sure you guys are going to continue nailing it, Dave.

PAULA: It’s always extremely exciting to hear about what you’re up to.

PAULA: So that’s all the questions I had from my side.

PAULA: Is there anything else you wanted to mention before we wrap up?

DAVE: No, I would just like to say, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to come back on Let’s Talk Loyalty.

DAVE: I think it’s a great platform.

DAVE: But I do want to kind of thank our partners who have believed in us from the beginning.

DAVE: You know, we did ask a lot of people to kind of, you know, take a leap of faith with us.

DAVE: And I’m hoping that we’re delivering on that promise.

DAVE: We’re still on a ramp.

DAVE: You know, so we have future partners that we also want to kind of talk to.

DAVE: I also want to kind of thank our members who basically kind of said, this is something I want to be part of.

DAVE: And if you’re enjoying it and you are a member of Bilt Rewards, tell your friends because it’s like I said earlier in the program, there is zero catch.

DAVE: There are no fees to be part of this program.

DAVE: And it’s an opportunity for you to make rent truly rewarding.

PAULA: Wonderful.

PAULA: Well, listen, on that note, I will say Dave Canty, head of Loyalty and Partnerships at Bilt Rewards, thank you so much and congratulations from Let’s Talk Loyalty.

PAULA: This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketeer, the world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights and research.

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PAULA: For more information, check out thewisemarketeer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.

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