Marketing, CRM & Direct Booking
Loyalty Currency Network & Clearing
Infrastructure for issuing, exchanging, transferring and settling loyalty currency between separate programmes. The layer that turns points into something with somewhere to go.
4 vendors, by listed deployments
| Vendor | Headquarters | Founded | Properties | Rooms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascenda | Singapore | 2013 | 0 | 0 |
| Bilt Rewards | New York, NY, United States | 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Currency Alliance | London, United Kingdom (registered 20-22 Wenlock Road, N1 7GU; operations Barcelona) | 2016 | 0 | 0 |
| Plusgrade (incl. Points) | Montréal, Québec, Canada (offices New York, Singapore) | 2009 | 0 | 0 |
Ascenda
Currency networkRewards infrastructure sold to financial institutions rather than travel brands: points earning, redemption, card-linked offers and a global merchant network, spanning full banking portfolios (cards, deposits, lending, investments). Its TransferConnect module is a genuine multi-party currency network with clearing, fraud mitigation and loyalty marketing attached — the rails by which bank currencies move into airline and hotel programmes.
Bilt Rewards
Currency networkA membership programme that turns housing payments — rent, HOA, mortgage — into a rewards currency, extended into neighbourhood merchant spend, and made valuable through an unusually broad 1:1 transfer network into established airline and hotel programmes. Not a hospitality vendor: hotels appear as transfer destinations, not customers.
Currency Alliance
Currency networkAn API-first SaaS platform that lets any brand issue, transfer, redeem or exchange any loyalty currency through a single integration, plus a Loyalty Partnerships Marketplace for discovering and connecting to partner programmes. Explicitly positioned for running a coalition, joining someone else's, or launching a new one. No CapEx and no licence fee — the only cost is ~2% of the value of points or miles issued, with volume discounts. Deployment in days with minimal IT involvement.
Plusgrade (incl. Points)
Currency networkTwo businesses in one: premium upgrade and ancillary revenue products (bid-for-upgrade, seat blocking, speed passes) sold to airlines, hotels, cruise and rail; and loyalty commerce via Points — buying, gifting, transferring and exchanging points between existing programmes, plus paying for upgrades and ancillaries with points. The only upselling platform that lets guests pay with loyalty currency.
Other categories
Running several of these systems at once?
Blue connects an existing hotel stack into one guest profile and one loyalty balance across every property — without replacing the PMS.