Bilt bets on local businesses, hospitality and major sports franchises, expanding beyond residential rewards

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Bilt is taking its residential property technology out into the neighborhood, announcing the launch of two new platforms designed to help local businesses and event venues attract customers and build loyalty. It is essentially taking the operating system it built for apartment rents and mortgage payments and deploying it across local area businesses, including hospitality, restaurants and sports venues.

The first offering, Neighborhood OS, is an artificial intelligence-driven system that works with restaurants, retail, gyms and other local businesses to attract customers, offer rewards and encourage repeat business. It does this by connecting the business’s existing systems, like reservations and payments. 

“We’re helping local businesses tap into more commerce by being able to reach new customers and accept those rewards as currency to spend,” said Ankur Jain, founder and CEO of Bilt. “This is giving every one of those merchants their own Shopify-like platform for real businesses, so now they can run their own marketing campaigns. They can run their own loyalty campaigns.”

One example of this might be that a restaurant near a customer’s home would offer a perk, then if the customer takes it, the system would recognize that and track that customer to manage future interactions, like more rewards, reservations or guest services. The AI helps the businesses measure which perks worked and which didn’t.

Bilt lists initial partners that include Altamarea Group, AM Parking, Lowe’s, and Thumbtack. Bilt says it partners with 50,000 merchants so residents can use Bilt rewards at their stores. Businesses that already have rewards systems don’t need to replace them. This gives small and midsized retailers an AI platform to use on their own.

They can run marketing offers on their own to drive demand from buildings on the Bilt platform. Examples might be offering a customer a free round of drinks on their 10th visit or pulling in local sports fans by running a watch party on game day. They could push that out through the platform. So merchants now have the same tools that Bilt had to offer its own rewards. 

“Offline commerce is six times larger in spend, and it’s run by mom and pops, but they have to work across 10 different systems. Everything is done manually for marketing, and there’s no way to track what’s working,” said Jain. “You democratize the ability for now mom and pop to sell against some of the biggest companies online, because they have all those tools.”

The second offering is a membership platform for organizations that already have a customer base. That could be sports teams, property companies, hotels and financial institutions. The organization keeps its brand and customer relationship. Bilt layers in additional technology to connect that organization’s program with its participating merchants, giving them access to more benefits they don’t have through existing programs. 

Bilt lists initial members including the Houston Rockets, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, Related Companies, Hyatt, Constellation Brands and Bozzuto, among others.

“We believe the neighborhood is one of the greatest amenities we can offer our residents,” said Toby Bozzuto, president and CEO of Bozzuto. “Through our partnership with Bilt, we have an opportunity to make that amenity an even more meaningful part of their everyday lives.”

For professional sports, the idea is to connect fans beyond the stadium. Teams will be able to introduce branded fan experiences that combine loyalty, fan passes, concierge services and neighborhood commerce. This would include rewards at local restaurants, retail businesses and branded events outside the stadium or arena.

Bilt launched in 2021 as a rewards program for rent and mortgage payments. Tenants could earn both loyalty rewards points as well as build credit history. It later expanded into credit cards. It reports 8.2 million members and powers one out of every four apartment buildings, according to the company.