OneJourney
Headquarters: Miami Beach, Florida
CEO: Brian Dass
Website: OneJourney
Founding date: October 2024
Investment: $500K
Pictured (L to R): Co-founders John Jamieson and Brian Dass
OneJourney is an embedded-payments company that gives independent hotels ownership of the money moving into and out of their business, on Mastercard rails. On the MoneyOUT side, OneJourney's SwiftPay platform turns the payments hotels already make to suppliers, vendors and partners into cash back and automated savings, combining hospitality payment cards, AI-driven invoice and reconciliation automation and transparent reporting at no cost to the property. On the MoneyIN side, OneJourney launches Hotel Direct in Q1 2027, its loyalty program for independent hotels, with a guest card that runs on Mastercard rails and gives independents the loyalty and direct-booking power that global chains and online travel agencies have long kept to themselves, so they earn on their guests before, during and after the stay.
PhocusWire coverage:
Below, we asked co-founder and CEO Brian Dass to share strategic priorities for 2027 and what has been learned since founding.
Strategic goals for 2027
2027 is the year OneJourney becomes a two-sided platform. In late Q1 we launch MoneyIN with Hotel Direct, our loyalty program for independent hotels: a spend & earn card in the guest's digital wallet, running on Mastercard rails and unlocking member rates, perks and cash back for booking direct, working with the hotel's existing booking engine. For the first time, an independent hotel earns on its guest before, during and after the stay. Alongside, we're scaling SwiftPay, our supplier-payments platform, in the U.S. and Europe and building the partner network that brings both to independents without changing their bank or systems.
Key lessons learned since founding
Three lessons stand out. First, simplicity wins: When we explained everything the platform could do, hotels had too much to think about and nothing to act on. Now we lead with one step that pays for itself, SwiftPay, and let results open the next conversation. Second, timing matters as much as the idea: I first had the book-direct idea behind our Hotel Direct loyalty program in 2003, but only now do digital wallets and Mastercard rails make it work at scale. Third, you can't sell your way to 100,000 hotels. Trust travels through partners, so we pick a few and go deep.
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