Agoda CEO on Why Price Is Still the Best Loyalty Program

Agoda’s playbook is clear: move fast, stay cheap, and think local. They’re not betting on the next big trend. They’re betting on knowing what their customers and partners want, before anyone else.

While many travel companies are busy reinventing loyalty programs with layers of points and perks, Agoda CEO Omri Morgenshtern believes the best loyalty program is simple: just keep prices low.

“Our belief is that the best loyalty is price,” Morgenshtern said.

That is why Agoda has intentionally kept its loyalty program, a basic tiered system with clearly visible discounts, simple. “A lot of those loyalty programs for me as a consumer are confusing,” he told Skift. “We believe in two principles. If I can keep you engaged and believing that we will give you the best price in the market, I'm doing well.”

The strategy has worked so far. But it’s not easy. Finding the lowest prices at scale, across millions of listings in dozens of countries, is a hard operational and financial challenge.

Agoda has long leaned into artificial intelligence. The company has been using machine learning behind the scenes for over a decade, long before