Expedia Group launches OneKeyCash for partners

Expedia Group has announced the global launch for all its partners of OneKeyCash, a rewards currency travelers can use on flights, hotels, cruises, activities, vacation rentals and car rentals.

The aim is to target the 83% of travelers who never earn status or meaningful rewards because they only take a few trips a year, according to Jon Gieselman, president of Expedia Brands. The company’s first unified loyalty program – One Key – is launching July 6 in the United States and next year in other markets. 

Travelers can use and earn rewards across Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo - an integration that previously did not exist.

“Since we’re going to build this thing from the ground up, we wanted to make it simple, easy to understand, flexible and have one common currency across all our brands,” Gieselman said during the company’s annual Explore partner conference in Seattle on Tuesday. 

“We see a big opportunity here to help travelers understand that there’s a relationship between our brands … rather than just simply letting [the brands] compete on their own individually,” he said.

“As we build greater loyalty, that will provide incremental high-value customers to you,” he told partners.

The rewards are funded by Expedia Group – different from other online travel agents’ rewards that are funded by partners, according to Gieselman.

One Key members can move up a ladder of different membership tiers: blue, silver, gold and platinum levels.

“A silver traveler books three times more frequently than that of a blue traveler. And a gold does almost eight times more – very, very valuable customers,” said Hari Nair, senior vice president of lodging partners at Expedia Group.

The company then provides “differentiated offers” to partners that give them greater visibility to the different tiers. The program is optional and flexible, according to Nair. The partner gets to choose the level of discount, for example.

Expedia Group is also opening One Key Member Only Deals – previously available only to hotel, cruise and activity partners – to its airline partners to help them boost their visibility to loyalty members. In some cases, customers will earn OneKeyCash on top of partner loyalty programs.

“We don’t see this as competitive at all. Actually we view it as quite complimentary. So if you want rewards, we will definitely promote it and make it clear to our travelers that there are two ways for them to win,” Gieselman said.

The reporter's attendance at the event was supported by Expedia Group.