Points International, a cross-industry loyalty programme management service, has bought hotel booking service PointsHound for an undisclosed fee.
PointsHound (TLabs here) works by allowing guests to collect points from the airline loyalty scheme of their choice when they book a hotel property on the system.
Airline partners (and even Bitcoin) include a number of high profile carriers including United, Etihad and Virgin Atlantic.
The company created was founded by online veterans Peter Van Dorn and Chris Boyd and had received $425,000 in seed funding in early-2013 from a number of high profile industry figures including former Expedia boss Erik Blachford, Zillow chief executive and co-founder of Hotwire Spencer Rascoff, former president of Travelocity global partner marketing Paul Nelson and Simmons Hotel Guides Cal Simmons.
Points CEO Rob MacLean says:
"This acquisition is a unique opportunity for Points to continue to bring new and innovative ideas not only to our Loyalty Program partners but also to the broader loyalty industry."
PointsHound currently has around 130,000 properties available for booking.
Points says it plans to use the acquisition of the California-based company as foothold in the into the region but also utilise some of the partnership partners into its existing schemes.