Published:
Jun 20, 2026
Author:
Sarah Parsons Wolter
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Somewhere along the way, the most lucrative thing a hotel company could own stopped being the hotel. Marriott now runs more than 1.7m rooms worldwide. But the engine under Bonvoy is a co-branded credit-card machine, set to throw off nearly $1b in card fees this year, up 35% from last year. The chain above the door has become a payments business in a bathrobe.
The trouble started when Marriott revealed what Bonvoy actually earns. Fifty-one owners representing nearly 1,000 hotels read the numbers and concluded they'd been had. Last year Marriott pocketed $716m in royalties from JPMorgan and Amex last year, up from $410m in 2019. Yet when a guest redeems points for a free night, it's the franchisee who eats the cost of the room.
So they've signed a letter asking, merely, for the compensation they'd get from Expedia - a humbling ask, when the OTA you've resented for a decade turns out to be the fairer counterparty. The loyalty-as-fintech playbook is alive and well: Marriott's stock has nearly tripled since 2020 while the REITs that own the buildings sat flat. Owning the customer's wallet, it turns out, beats owning the real estate.
Portfolio News
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Points of No Return
Hotel Owners Are Rebelling Against Marriott’s Loyalty Program - Marriott fee revenue from its co-branded credit cards is expected to jump 35% this year to nearly $1 billion. Read more
Industry News
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JPMorgan plans Chase expansion into Europe’s largest markets - JPMorgan Chase wants its digital bank to be operating in at least five European countries within the next five years, setting its sights on the continent’s largest markets for its retail banking ambitions. Read more
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Sequoia’s Luciana Lixandru: Can Europe build a trillion-dollar tech company? - The global co-lead of the US venture capital firm’s early-stage investment business talks about why it is time for ‘act two’ for Europe’s tech sector. Read more
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JPMorgan Chase cuts off Anthropic access for its Hong Kong staff - JPMorgan Chase has stopped its staff in Hong Kong from accessing Anthropic’s AI models, following a similar move by rival Goldman Sachs in a sign of the intense scrutiny on the technology’s use outside the US. Read more
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Amex forks over $700m to buy TheFork from Tripadvisor - American Express said the deal was designed to build on the company’s broader dining strategy following its acquisitions of Resy and Tock. Put together, the three platforms expand the Amex dining network to 75,000 venues, the company said. Read more
Select Financings
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El Dorado - Colombia based stablecoin payments platform for cross-border transfers raised $9m in Series A funding led by Paradigm. Read more
Flagright - California based AI operating system for financial crime compliance raised $12.5m in Series A funding led by Infinity Ventures. Read more
Interchecks - New York based instant payments infrastructure provider raised $50m in Series C funding led by Bettor Capital. Read more
Karta - Florida based fintech offering U.S.-issued, WhatsApp-run premium credit cards to international travelers raised $15m in Series A funding led by Galaxy Ventures. Read more
Trace Finance - Brazil based regulated financial infrastructure provider for cross-border payments and stablecoin settlement raised $32m in Series A funding led by CoinFund. Read more
Waniwani - California fintech infrastructure startup that lets financial services sell directly inside AI platforms raised $8m in Seed funding led by Seedcamp. Read more
Warren - Belgium based workplace pension and financial coaching platform raised €10m in Seed funding led by Motive Ventures. Read more
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