Sam Bakhshandehpour has left his senior position as CEO of José Andrés Group because he saw an opportunity to make an impact that goes far beyond the four walls of the restaurant.
He has been advising Bilt, a start-up that enables members to receive rewards for housing, for almost two years, and realizes that this financial technology company has the potential to transform the tourism industry. In February, Bakhshandehpour joined Bilt as president of merchandise, a role that involved growing Bilt’s relationships with restaurants, nightclubs, hotels, stores, pharmacies and more.
Bilt, which launched in 2021, allows members to earn points on monthly rental payments without operating fees. And it has since grown beyond it The Bilt Alliance of rental properties into a system that applies to other housing payments.
Bilt members can use rewards points for, among other things, dining, partying, shopping and fitness classes booked at their location and beyond. They can also earn points by regularly visiting neighboring businesses and booking tours.
Bakhshandehpour’s first conversation with Bilt founder and CEO Ankur Jain was about “introducing compassion into living spaces.” Bakhshandehpour and Jain put together ways to improve the guest experience and help restaurants identify, satisfy and retain valuable customers.
“You start with housing, and you’re always going to refer to this hotel analogy,” Bakhshandehpour tells the Observer of her interview with Jain. “Home should feel like a five-star hotel. Your neighborhood needs to be an extension of that.”
On March 20, Bilt presented Built Hospitality with Instagram video which featured testimonials from heavyweights, including Observer Nightlife + Dining Power List alums Daniel Boulud, Danny Meyer, Jeff Zalaznick, Eugene Remm, Kwame Onwuachi, Elizabeth Blau, Michael Mina, Sean Feeney, Noah Tepperberg and David Grutman. As Thomas Keller says in the video, Bilt has created a platform that gives operators information about who their guests are before they even arrive.
This is an “orchestration platform” with an AI-powered concierge as a key feature. It does not conflict with reservation applications or sales systems. It sits atop a restaurant’s technology stack to help operators increase revenue and convert first-time guests into regulars. Using the Bilt platform, restaurants can enhance the dining experience by sending bonus dishes to other guests, offer special after-dinner drinks that encourage guests to stay longer, have waiting cars to transport customers from one place to another, deliver personalized greetings and seat guests in quiet or healthy areas based on preferences. It’s about developing everything at once.
“All the data is there,” Bakhshandehpour says. “It’s just unrelated. Like, I know you have an allergy to shellfish. That data sits in the reservation platform. In my CRM at the restaurant, I know you like wine. In the POS, it gives me SKU-level data of what you like to order. The checkout has separate data. When you’re sitting up, now you put all of this together, you capture more nights and develop more information to improve your loyalty experience.
Before Bakhshandehpour became a hospitality executive, an investment banker who led the global casino and West Coast real estate and lodging groups at JP Morgan. He then became president and CEO of SBE Entertainment, where he managed hotels, restaurants and nightclubs. He is still a hospitality operator, working Electric Jane in Nashville. His leadership role at Bilt allows him to use his knowledge and experience to help operators across the country improve their businesses.
“I was lucky,” Bakhshandehpour says. “I’ve spent my career building and measuring famous brands. It’s been an amazing job. Bilt is so much more than shopping within four walls. It’s about something that the restaurant industry, the hotel industry and the travel industry are all trying to solve. Where is my guest coming from? What’s the experience like inside the plane, the hotel, the restaurant? And where do they go after they check out?”
Bilt connects all of this.
“Bilt has a gutter around the houses, which no one else does,” Bakhshandehpour says. “It was the same for me I’m really taking the lessons from my gaming banking and investment chapter and the hotel, restaurant and nightclub management chapter, and moving forward in how you use technology to enable the best guest experience from your home to your local area.”
Bilt’s AI concierge helps restaurants connect with guests, but this is much more than just dinner. In addition to restaurant reservations, Bakhshandehpour recently used Bilt’s concierge to book a 9:30 a.m. flight to New York, hop on a Lyft waiting for him at the airport, find a hotel near his Meatpacking District office and schedule a 7 a.m. workout within walking distance of the hotel. When he got to the gym, he was offered free hire. It was a small but meaningful thing that made him happy, the exact kind of moment Bilt members wanted to experience over and over again.
He loves it when he hears about chefs welcoming Bilt members with personalized notes, gifts from the kitchen and invitations to special events.
Bilt’s app has a virtual wallet, so guests can pay for food quickly without flagging down a server. Even though Bilt monetizes these purchases and works with guest groups to create house accounts, guests can use any other payment method accepted by the restaurant, whether it’s cash, a physical gift card, InKind or points from the guest group’s loyalty program. One goal of all restaurants is repeat visits, and Bilt is here to facilitate that in many ways. It’s about improving without disrupting. Regardless of how the customer pays, the restaurant’s system processes the transaction.
Bilt already has a network of 6.5 million residential customers nationwide, and has recently expanded beyond renters. In February, Bilt introduced its Green, Obsidian and Platinum cards, all of which replace the previously issued Wells Fargo Bilt Mastercard. Homeowners can now earn points on mortgage and HOA fees for their new properties Bilt card.
“This projection is over 100 billion dollars of housing spent through the Bilt ecosystem this year,” said Bakhshandehpour. These residents are expected to spend an additional $20 billion on local businesses. So it’s clear why restaurants want to tap into Bilt’s membership base.
“We can create a neighborhood experience,” Bakhshandehpour said. “It’s about identity and recognition.”
There are many customers with special status and a lot of reward points with certain products, but only those types. Bilt is reimagining the hospitality industry where guests can experience a one-of-a-kind experience when visiting multiple restaurants, hotels and neighborhood businesses.
“In our world, we sit there and talk about the topic of ice,” Bakhshandehpour said. “This is actually an iceberg. We’re talking to every restaurant and chef about those top 50 guests who will get the red carpet treatment. How do we create an experience that elevates 5,000 people to this situation? This is bigger than life, the chances are that this it would be.”
