6 Months After Launch, the Journey Rewards Program Has a Points Match and Some Big Ideas

“This isn’t your daddy’s loyalty program,” Zach Busekrus, head of Journey Alliance, told me in a 1-on-1 chat. And that’s definitely true.

Journey launched in July 2025 as a novel, AI-driven rewards program for boutique hotels, residences, and independent properties that didn’t want to sacrifice their independence — yet wanted some type of rewards program to offer guests.

Now, Journey has over 25,000 active members and a potential reach of 2 million.

While the program is still relatively new, and obviously smaller than programs at Hilton and Marriott, that doesn’t mean its management is thinking small.

I sat down with Busekrus to discuss the past 6 months at Journey and what comes next. Big things are afoot, including a points match, ideas for earning points when you aren’t traveling, and earning points with hotels that don’t officially participate in Journey.

What Is Journey?

Journey is a modern loyalty platform that unites boutique hotels, resorts, short-term rentals, and private villas into a shared rewards program, without forcing a standardized experience. Its members can earn and redeem rewards across unique destinations without being limited by a single brand’s footprint.

Journey focuses on independent, high-end properties, such as treehouse hotels, ski chalets, and eco-luxury resorts. There are currently 1,600 participating properties, and most are premium stays that cost over $500 per night.

What Has Journey Done Since Launch?

More than anything, Busekrus says his team has learned that implementing a rewards program is more complicated than they expected it to be. “There’s a lot of turnover in hospitality, especially at the front desk of an independent property,” he said. “That means the people we trained on how to provide loyalty and benefits when the hotel joined Journey a month ago might be gone in 3 months.”

And that training has been a key point, as most properties participating in Journey have never participated in a rewards program before. That means the team at Journey has to help these properties understand not just how to offer Journey’s suite of benefits but also how a loyalty program works in general.

Who is Journey’s average user?

“We’re still figuring that out ourselves,” Busekrus said. The program is sifting through data to gather information about trends, habits, and other tidbits to understand its members better — such as how many points they earn in a year or how often they stay at hotels. Management does know, though, that the average member is more affluent and likes boutique experiences. “Our biggest piece of member feedback is that they feel like nothing like this exists elsewhere.”

As a new program, Journey also doesn’t have a ton of top-tier elite members yet — something bigger hotel programs like Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors have struggled with. Over time, members will continue to climb the ranks, and avoiding the “too many elites” problem is definitely a key discussion behind the scenes.

“We haven’t run into that issue yet,” Busekrus says, “but it’s something we’re talking about.” Journey’s approach is to offer a set of guaranteed benefits, perks that are “as available,” and a unique, third option: benefits that are scaled. Elite members qualify for a Magical Moment award on each stay, but that benefit can be scaled, offering something simpler to lower-tier Nomad guests while making the perk more robust for upper-tier Legend and Icon members. Rather than all elites getting the same, fixed perk, a Magical Moment might be free drinks, though this could start with a glass of wine and work up to curated whiskey tastings for top elites.

What Comes Next?

Busekrus said Journey is working on 3 big projects for 2026, including 1 that’s launching today, January 7.

Now Live: Points Matching

Members can head to this page to confirm their loyalty accounts at other programs, including not just hotel chains but also airline programs like United MileagePlus and Delta SkyMiles and credit card rewards like Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards. Members will get 500 Journey Points for each account they verify.

Members could easily take home 5,000 points just for verifying they have accounts at these other programs. And with Journey’s points sharing capabilities, friends could easily pool these points together to cover part of a boutique hotel stay — an incentive to see what Journey has to offer.

Plus, once a month, Journey will randomly choose a winner for a points match, offering up to 250,000 Journey Points as a match against the points balances this member verified.

The 500-point offer is a available for everyone, even if you don’t win the monthly drawing.

End of January: Nominated, for Non-Journey Properties

“Nominated” is the name for a novel idea that would allow members to book hotels through Journey’s website and earn rewards as they normally do — 5 points per $1 spent, plus elite bonuses if you have status — even if that property doesn’t participate in Journey. Redemptions at these properties won’t be possible, though.

These will be properties that fit the Journey profile, so they will be luxury villas, fancy hotels, and similar stays. They also can be properties that have expressed interest in Journey but aren’t fully onboarded yet.

Could you earn Journey Points on a stay at a Four Seasons property booked through Journey? “That’s essentially the goal,” Busekrus said.

In the Future: Earning Points When You Aren’t Traveling

The average person doesn’t travel every day. How do travel-based rewards programs get people to engage when they aren’t traveling?

That’s what Journey is working on for later this year, according to Busekrus.

“Maybe we give people points for going to a local coffee shop,” he said. “Or maybe they don’t get points at the up-and-coming local restaurant that’s about to get a Michelin star, but maybe they get the best table as a Journey member.”

When will these launch, and what will they look like? That remains to be seen.

Final Thoughts

Journey launched in July 2025 as a way for people to earn and redeem points while enjoying elite perks — the things people like about hotel rewards programs — while visiting boutique properties and escaping cookie-cutter hotel experiences.

Now, 6 months later, the program has 25,000 active members. While that’s small compared to many major hotel loyalty programs, Journey has some big ideas for 2026.