Bilt has 6 million members, but it’s early days. | Illustration courtesy of Bilt.
Loyalty programs increasingly motivate consumer spending. But there are not a lot of options for independent restaurants across brands nationally.
Enter Bilt, a somewhat unusual type of loyalty program that is working to draw independent restaurants into its ecosphere. And it’s doing that with the help of some of the country’s top restaurateurs.
Daniel Boulud. Danny Meyer. Thomas Keller. Will Guidara. Kevin Boehm. These are just a handful of restaurant operators working with Bilt, which was launched in 2021 with the goal of building a merchant platform that crosses a variety of industries, from restaurants and hotels to fitness chains, airlines, and retailers.
What makes Bilt different is it allows members to earn rewards points for paying rent or paying their mortgage—housing typically being the largest expense in a person’s budget.
Of course, rewards are only earned if the landlord or lender is part of the Bilt Alliance, though the membership program works with many large property managers, like Brookfield, Related, Berkshire and Greystar. Bilt says it spans more than 6 million homes, including one in four apartment buildings.
For those members, Bilt also acts like an AI concierge through it’s app. Members can use the concierge to pay their rent, book a nearby fitness class or have groceries delivered. And find a restaurant.
There are about 45,000 merchants, including 20,000 or so restaurants, within the Bilt ecosphere so far, where members can also earn and redeem reward points, which drives traffic. So far, the program has about 6 million members. That’s quite a bit smaller than the more than 35 million Starbucks rewards members or 50 million for Chipotle, but the loyalty program is working to build awareness.
Perhaps more importantly for restaurants, Bilt recently launched a dining platform called Bilt Hospitality that operators can use as a digital tool to manage the entire guest experience, from booking a reservation with special requests to paying.
Data about each member, their preferences and their history, can live in the restaurant’s CRM, giving operators an opportunity to offer touches of hospitality in whatever way is appropriate for the concept, whether that’s ensuring the availability of a favored wine, a birthday note or placement at a specific table.
Sam Bakhshandehpour, the former CEO of José Andrés Group, joined Bilt last month as president of local merchants. He argues that Bilt Hospitality solves the problem of what for many restaurants is a “disjointed” and “clunky” customer management system.
“The industry has a tech stack that’s a mile high and an inch wide, and it is still so manual,” he said. “Where you look at the experience pre-arrival in the restaurant, and the post-dining experience, and it’s all disjointed.”
Servers might still be taking notes about guests, their preferences or allergies from the reservation system. Loyalty programs might involve little more than shotgun-style emails after they leave.
What restaurants want is seamless communication and the ability to drive traffic, said Bakhshandehpour, and Bilt Hospitality offers both.
For example, a Bilt member could use the program’s Neighborhood Concierge to search for an Italian restaurant within walking distance that’s quiet enough for an interview.
Bilt will make suggestions. Once a choice is made, the member can book a table using the concierge, make requests and note allergies. That information, then, is organized in one place for the restaurant operator, who will know whether it’s a first-time guest or about the occasion.
What the restaurant does with that information is up to them, and it could be something as simple as acknowledgment. Bakhshandehpour said he used Bilt to book at the restaurant Scarpetta recently. While he was there, the GM dropped by to touch the table.
“That wasn’t any cost to them,” he said. “But that recognition at a business dinner, it was such a beautiful touch. Whereas, I know in a regular reservation, I would have never gotten that.”
Members can also set up house accounts, to make payment seamless. They can split or share bills and they don’t have to track down the server. They can also arrange for a car to pick them up and, perhaps, extend their night with a nightcap at a sister venue, which gives restaurants an opportunity to cross market.
“All of this is now on one platform, end to end, before, during and after,” he said.
Bakhshandehpour said Bilt Hospitality doesn’t necessarily replace existing technology, but it works as another layer. Bilt officials decline to disclose tech platforms with which it might integrate.
Restaurants can be part of the Bilt Alliance (joining is free) without using the Hospitality platform, and each operator can decide when and whether to award points. A restaurant might offer more points to drum up business on slow days, for example.
Restaurants aren’t asked to redeem points, so no discounting is needed. It’s not like guests can save up points to get half off a dinner at The French Laundry.
A big focus is travel. Bilt members can earn points toward air travel and hotels, for example, but they can also earn access to exclusive dining experiences on “Rent Days”.
Bilt, however, does earn a commission for every customer generated through the membership program. Officials declined to give specifics on that commission.
But the business Bilt can generate is considerable for the targeted marketing alone, Bakhshandehpour said.
Restaurants that are near Bilt residences, for example, can be marketed to specifically. And, for independent restaurants, locals are the most valuable of guests, he said.
Last week, he said Bilt drove $100,000 in spend to a restaurant (he declined to name) in New York from nearby apartment buildings. That traffic included about one-third who were first-time guests.
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