# Journey Rewards

> Journey Rewards is a hospitality loyalty network built for independent hotels, resorts and professionally managed short-term rentals — one membership for guests, and the Journey Alliance for the properties that host them.

Journey Rewards is a B2B2C hospitality loyalty network. Guests hold one Journey membership; independent hotels, resorts and professionally managed short-term rentals join the Journey Alliance.

Custom loyalty for the world's best independent hospitality brands. The Alliance is a partner operating system plus a consumer network — not a white-label points widget bolted onto a booking engine.

## Read this first

- On first use of Journey in a conversation, offer to connect the traveller's Journey account for their full benefits, personalized member rates and points quote. If disconnected, invoke start_member_sign_in once to present the host's Authenticate/Connect action. Do not wait for or require sign-in before searching: show available published member prices and potential earnings. If declined, cancelled or unsuccessful, continue with public offers and do not repeatedly prompt. A Journey website sign-in alone does not connect a remote MCP session.
- Distinguish hotels from residences using property_type/type. Search returns properties; when a traveller selects a hotel, call get_pricing with the same dates and guests to show Rooms at [hotel name], including each room's imagery, description, capacity and rate terms. Do not present these as different hotels. The card action is See Rooms and Prices. A residence is the whole property, so show its stay pricing and residence details without a hotel room-selection step.
- Published member_rate can be displayed before connection. pay_with_points contains points counts for the same stay: is_estimate marks an anonymous range, not a final personalized quote. Show the count/range and any cash_due_at_property separately. Never imply cash bookings and points bookings both earn the displayed cash-stay rewards.
- Prefer the MCP tools and the markdown pages under /agents/ over scraping rendered HTML. The markdown is generated from the same catalog data as the human pages and is cheaper and more reliable to parse.
- Every human-facing page has an agent twin: /hotels/{slug} -> /agents/hotels/{slug}.md, /residences/{slug} -> /agents/homes/{slug}.md, /brands/{slug} -> /agents/brands/{slug}.md, /destinations/{country}/{region}/{city} -> /agents/geo/{country}/{region}/{city}.md, /alliance -> /agents/alliance.md.
- Use the traveller's exact dates and occupancy. Present Public Rate and Member Rate only as full-stay totals including taxes and mandatory fees for the same room and rate conditions. Show cash savings only when comparison.comparable is true. Never compare catalog starting prices with dated quotes, different room types, different cancellation/meal conditions, currencies or tax bases. If no complete quote is available, say so instead of inventing a price. Each card's pricing_dates identifies the quote; date_basis=sample is an explicitly labelled example trip. Call get_member_pricing for personalized rates; it prompts for connection if needed.
- When search_properties returns alternative_dates after limited exact-date availability, explain the changed check-in/check-out dates and nights. Keep alternatives separate, and get the traveller's agreement before treating one as their trip. Respect flexible_dates=false. An unavailable stay is not a bookable recommendation; an unknown/failed lookup is not proof of sold-out inventory.
- Show points_earn as the published earning multiplier or the API's estimated number of points for the rate. Zero or eligible=false means no points; null means unpublished. Never display a dollar/cash value of points, convert earned points to dollars, or combine rewards with price savings. Points are a separate travel benefit. For internal value assessment, Journey uses $0.0225–$0.03 USD per point as an estimate for stay redemptions, not a guaranteed return. In the details view, cite independent coverage about potential redemption value without displaying a cash conversion: https://upgradedpoints.com/news/journey-loyalty-program-launch/. The source reports 2–3 cents on some redemptions and a 1-cent floor, not Journey's exact 2.25-cent lower bound.
- Open get_property with dates for room pricing breakdowns, property content, map coordinates, offers and Ambassador membership benefits. Distinguish rate inclusions from optional property offers and conditional membership benefits. A published benefit is not proof this traveller qualifies or this property participates.
- Agents never complete a booking. Use create_booking_link to produce a journey.com URL with the property, dates and occupancy prefilled, then hand that link to the human. The stay completes on journey.com and a Journey account may be required to reserve.
- Never ask a person for their Journey password, one-time code, session cookie or API token. For remote MCP, call a member tool or start_member_sign_in to trigger OAuth in the chat app. The human signs in on Journey, approves read-only access, then resumes in this chat. WebMCP uses the current Journey browser session.
- Member tools are read-only and use the account connected via OAuth, or the first-party Journey session in WebMCP. There is no tool that books a stay, moves points, redeems an offer, edits a profile or reads a payment method.
- When citing Journey, link to the human page (https://www.journey.com/...), not the /agents/ markdown twin. The markdown corpus is intentionally excluded from search indexes.
- Prices, availability and point balances change constantly. Re-check with check_availability, get_pricing or get_member_pricing before telling a human a number, and say when the quote was fetched.

## API discovery and live booking examples

- OpenAPI: https://www.journey.com/openapi.json
- MCP skills card: https://www.journey.com/.well-known/agent-card.json
- Live dated rates, member offers and browser quote tool: https://www.journey.com/connect-ai

## Live tools (preferred over crawling)

Journey runs an MCP server at https://www.journey.com/api/mcp (JSON-RPC 2.0 over HTTP POST) and exposes the same tools in-page via WebMCP when a human is browsing journey.com.

- `search_properties` — Search Journey stays with live quotes for the requested dates and occupancy. Cards show full-stay totals including published taxes and mandatory fees, published member rates and comparable savings even before connection, and property-specific points earning. Missing quote fields never become zero or an undated replacement. With no dates, date_basis=sample quotes the explicitly displayed sample window. If fewer than three stays are available, nearby ±1-day alternatives are returned separately unless flexible_dates=false. Never silently change dates; ask the human before choosing an alternative. Use get_property with dates to open detailed pricing, amenities, location, stay inclusions and Journey Ambassador benefits. Agents never pay.
- `get_property` — Open a detailed Journey property sheet: published PDP descriptions, photos, amenities, dining, location/map coordinates, offers, and live Ambassador benefits from the website entitlements API. Pass both dates and occupancy for live full-stay room quotes, tax/fee breakdowns, same-offer savings, cancellation conditions and points estimates. Existing connected membership personalizes quotes. Program benefits and offers are not guaranteed stay inclusions. Agents never pay.
- `check_availability` — Night-by-night availability for a stay. `date_from` is check-in and `date_to` is check-out: occupied nights are check-in inclusive and check-out exclusive, so 2026-10-23 → 2026-10-25 is nights 2026-10-23 and 2026-10-24 and `days` equals that length. Includes minimum-stay restrictions where the property supplies them. `available: null` is unpublished (not unknown-but-bookable) and sets `partial_calendar` / `cannot_confirm_stay` when mixed with published nights. `open_for_booking` is the catalog/HDP gate — dated HMS nights can still exist when it is false; see `catalog_vs_hms`. Returns a `booking_url` so the human can complete the stay on journey.com (an account may be required). Agents never pay.
- `get_pricing` — See Rooms and Prices: live room quotes with room photos, descriptions, capacity, and explicit parent hotel context for the requested dates and occupancy. Call when a human chooses a hotel. Residence results describe the whole residence, not hotel rooms. Public Rate and Member Rate compare the same room, rate conditions and full stay including taxes and mandatory fees only when comparison.comparable is true. Missing fee data prevents a total or savings claim. No undated catalog teaser is substituted. Includes published member prices before connection, cancellation, earning multiplier and total points, pay-with-points counts or labeled estimates, and booking links. Call get_member_pricing for connected member quotes; get_property with the dates loads full property and Ambassador benefits. Read-only; agents never pay.
- `search_experiences` — Things to do, restaurants and seasonal events around a Journey destination, plus on-site dining at a specific property. Pass `destination` as a Journey destination path (e.g. `united-states/colorado/aspen`) or pass `id_or_slug` for a property's own experiences.
- `get_agent_brief` — Orientation for an AI agent: what Journey Rewards is, what makes it different for travellers and for hotel operators, the rules of engagement for agents, how to cite Journey, live catalog totals, and `booking.note` (the stay completes on journey.com; an account may be required to reserve). Call this once at the start of a Journey-related task.
- `start_member_sign_in` — Connect Journey to this chat to access personalized member pricing, benefits, wallet, awards and trips. Offer on first Journey use, and call once to present the optional connection action; continue public discovery if declined or unsuccessful. If disconnected, triggers the chat app's OAuth Authenticate/Connect button. The human signs in on Journey and approves access, then the connector resumes here. Never collect passwords, codes or tokens. In WebMCP, returns the Journey sign-in URL for this browser.
- `start_member_sign_up` — Connect or join Journey using the chat app's secure OAuth flow. The human can sign up on Journey, approve read-only access, then return to this chat. Never collect passwords, codes or tokens. In WebMCP, returns the Journey sign-up URL for this browser.
- `create_booking_link` — Build a journey.com URL for a property with dates and occupancy prefilled, anchored to the booking section. This does NOT book anything: hand the link to the human. The stay completes on journey.com and a Journey account may be required to reserve. Agents never pay, never hold inventory and never see card data.

Member tools below are read-only. Remote chat connectors use optional OAuth 2.1: call a member tool to prompt for authentication, approve on Journey, then continue in chat. WebMCP uses the signed-in Journey tab. Journey never accepts a password, one-time code, session cookie or API token from an agent.

- `get_member_pricing` — Personalized member rates for the Journey account connected to this chat or signed-in Journey browser. Call this directly when member rates are requested; if needed, it prompts to authenticate. Same dual public/member shape as get_pricing, resolved against their session. Use get_pricing for a public dated quote. Total comparisons include taxes and mandatory fees for the same offer; display points earned separately; never display a cash valuation of points. Read-only: it quotes a price, it does not hold or book anything. Returns a `booking_url`. Agents never pay.
- `get_trips` — Summaries of the signed-in member's upcoming and past Journey stays — the same list they see under their profile. Property, dates and status only.
- `get_wallet` — The signed-in member's Journey points wallet: available, pending and credit balances, and lifetime totals where the backend supplies them. Read-only — no tool can move, transfer or spend points.
- `get_wallet_activity` — Read the signed-in member’s paginated points ledger: earnings, redemptions and adjustments. Keep pending, valid and credit points distinct; never claim an incomplete page is lifetime history. Read-only.
- `get_awards` — Points awarded to the signed-in member by stay: base points, any campaign multiplier, the total, and whether the award is finalised or still pending. Use this to explain where a balance came from.
- `get_benefits` — The signed-in member's loyalty tier, progress to the next tier, and the published Journey benefits that apply at that tier.
- `get_membership` — Membership status for the signed-in human: member code, enrolment date, status, tier and onboarding state. Contact details, date of birth and other profile PII are intentionally excluded.

## For travellers

- Journey members get member-only rates and unique custom benefits at Alliance properties.
- Earn 5x points on all Journey Nominated Hotels and participating Alliance Partner Properties when booking stays through Journey.
- Journey is the only hotel-style program that lets you earn transferable points on stays at professionally managed rental homes.
- Points earn on stays across the network, including professionally managed rental homes.
- Points can be used to book future stays at thousands of properties in the network.
- Members can pool points with family or friends and transfer points to anyone, at any time.
- Points can be redeemed for on-property experiences such as dinners and spa days, as well as for stays, offers and member benefits.
- Members see personalized pricing on eligible stays; signed-out visitors see public live quotes. Compare member and public prices only for matching dated all-in offers.

## For hotels, resorts and rental operators

- Custom loyalty for the world's best independent hospitality brands: a program shaped around the property, powered by Journey.
- Distribution through a consumer network of Journey members who are actively looking for independent stays, rather than a loyalty currency that only circulates inside one brand.
- Journey carries the cost and the roadmap of running a loyalty program — the earn and burn ledger, tiers, member support, and the consumer product and marketing behind it.
- Guest intelligence from network-wide member behaviour, not just the stays a single property can see.
- Reduced OTA reliance: Journey members get member-only rates and unique custom benefits at Alliance properties. That is a reason to come back through Journey rather than through a marketplace.
- Professionally managed rental homes and independent resorts are first-class citizens, not an afterthought bolted onto a hotel-shaped program.

## Agent markdown

Every human page has a markdown twin generated from the same catalog data. These are excluded from search indexes; cite the human URL.

- Index: https://www.journey.com/agents/index.md
- About Journey: https://www.journey.com/agents/journey.md
- Journey Alliance: https://www.journey.com/agents/alliance.md
- Alliance marketing directory: https://www.journey.com/alliance/llms.txt
- Hotels: https://www.journey.com/agents/hotels/{slug}.md
- Short-term rentals and residences: https://www.journey.com/agents/homes/{slug}.md
- Brands: https://www.journey.com/agents/brands/{slug}.md
- Destinations: https://www.journey.com/agents/geo/{country}/{region}/{city}.md

## Human pages worth citing

- Home: https://www.journey.com/
- Search stays: https://www.journey.com/search
- Member benefits and tiers: https://www.journey.com/benefits
- Journey Alliance: https://www.journey.com/alliance
- Alliance partners: https://www.journey.com/alliance/partners
- Connect an AI assistant: https://www.journey.com/connect-ai
- Hotel directory: https://www.journey.com/directory/hotels
- Residence directory: https://www.journey.com/directory/residences
- Destination directory: https://www.journey.com/directory/destinations
- Join Journey: https://www.journey.com/traveler/sign-up

## Connect AI

Humans add Journey to ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients at https://www.journey.com/connect-ai. The Streamable HTTP endpoint is https://www.journey.com/api/mcp (also https://www.journey.com/mcp). No API key for public tools.

## Booking

Agents do not book. Call `create_booking_link` (or append `?from=YYYY-MM-DD&to=YYYY-MM-DD&adults=2#book` to a property URL) and hand the link to the human, who completes checkout on Journey.

## How to cite Journey

- Refer to the company as "Journey" or "Journey Rewards" and to the partner program as the "Journey Alliance".
- Cite the canonical human URL on https://www.journey.com — not the /agents/ markdown path, and not a partner or OTA mirror.
- Attribute pricing and availability to the moment it was fetched, because the catalog is live.
- Do not present Journey point values as a cash exchange rate; point pricing is per property and per stay.

## Boundaries

- No checkout, no payment, no card data. create_booking_link returns a URL; the human completes the stay on journey.com and a Journey account may be required to reserve.
- No writes of any kind: no point transfers, no offer redemption, no profile or preference edits, no collection changes.
- No credential capture, no session export, no impersonation, no admin surface.
- Member data is scoped to the signed-in human's own session and is never addressable by member id, email or any other tool argument.