Bilt Rewards partners with Douglas Elliman for homeowners to earn points for condo, co-op fees
Bilt Rewards, which gives tenants perks for paying their rent on time, will now benefit condo and co-op owners as well, The Post has learned.
The Manhattan-based company, founded by former Tinder executive Ankur Jain, has struck a deal with real estate giant Douglas Elliman to become the exclusive payment processor for the firm’s roughly 40,000 condos and co-ops across New York City.
Condo and co-op owners will now get points for paying their monthly condo and co-op fees on time.
They’ll also get access to the Bilt Neighborhood Rewards — a platform where, in NYC, tenants can earn points for eating at local hotspots like Carbone and taking popular fitness classes like Y7 Yoga and redeem them for first-class flights and stays at hotels like the Hilton-owned Conrad.
Dan Sachar, vice president of enterprise innovation at Douglas Elliman, told The Post it was an easy decision to start working with Bilt: “Owners weren’t getting rewards with payments before and now they are.”
“The opportunity isn’t just giving residents benefits for paying fees, it also gives people access to the neighborhood benefits Bilt provides. Tenants get points for taking Lyfts and going to local restaurants,” Sachar said.
“We want people to get rewards and benefits for spending time in their neighborhood — so we’ve included restaurants, like Delmonico’s and fitness classes from SoulCycle in the Bilt Neighborhood Rewards program,” David Wyler, Chief Commercial Officer at Bilt said.
Some NYC restaurants like Torrisi, The Grill and Tucci will offer double, triple or up to 10x the points to Bilt members.
Since Douglas Elliman began rolling out Bilt across its buildings earlier this year, residents have already redeemed nearly seven million points, the company said.
Bilt has relationships with airlines including United, Emirates, KLM-Air France, Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton so tenants can book travel directly with those companies on Bilt’s website or app.
Residents can also put points toward their monthly maintenance monthly fees.
While Bilt has its Mastercard which allows customers to pay rent without the usual 3% transaction fee, users can also add their existing credit cards to the Bilt app to earn points.
Douglas Elliman is one of the largest residential brokerage companies in the US, with properties in 10 states including New York, Florida, California and Texas.
In the coming months, Bilt is set to expand the number of condos and co-ops it works with, and will eventually offer homeowners the opportunity to pay their mortgages and get rewarded on their platform, a spokesperson for the company said.
The company processes $20 billion in transactions annually and was valued at $3.1 billion in a recent funding round where it raised $200 million.
Earlier this year, Bilt — which has partnerships with property owners including The Related Companies, Brookfield, Cushman & Wakefield and Highmark — added former American Express CEO Ken Chenault as chairman of its board and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell as an independent director.
“Rental and mortgage payments consume 30% of household income on average in the US,” Chenault said in January. “Bilt is transforming this market by empowering and rewarding renters and homeowners for their monthly payments and everyday spend with local merchants.”
