In case you’ve missed it, hotel chains and online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Expedia and Travelocity have been warring over whose customers should get the lowest rates. As the battle between the two sides rages on, a new player has joined the fray: The Guestbook. In a nutshell, the company is a loyalty program that rewards members with up to 5 percent cash back for booking directly at more than 450 independent and boutique brand hotels in cities around the world. We recently caught up with founder and CEO James Gancos to learn more about the company and what’s driving its model.

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Why this model, why now?

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James Gancos (JG): I’m a former hotelier [with Starwood], and for years I saw the way online booking sites were getting between guests and hotels. It was creating an inferior experience for customers. In recent years we’ve had consolidation of all the big online travel brands into two companies, and that kind of duopoly can be scary for hotels. OTAs say you can’t find better deals than the ones they offer. We’re out to undo that myth. We set out to create a program from which hotels and the guests can benefit. We launched the program publicly in November 2015. It’s a program we feel lets everyone win.

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