Hotel-Booking Site PointsHound Acquired by Points International

PointsHound, a San Francisco startup that enables travelers to earn airline miles from hotel bookings, made what appears to be a modest exit as it was acquired by Points International.

Points International, a Toronto-based public company that operates loyalty program solutions for airlines and hotels, including Southwest, Wyndham and Melia Hotels, and also operates consumer site Points.com, said the acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on its financial results.

Points International said it stood to gain from PointsHounds’ loyalty relationships, following, and San Francisco base.

Backed by former Expedia, Hotwire, and Travelocity executives and founded in 2013, PointsHound had raised just $550,000 in seed funding.

Co-founder and CEO Pete Van Dorn said the three-member team will stay on, and there are plans to add seven employees to its San Francisco office in the next few months.

“We decided to join forces with Points instead of raise more venture capital funding because we saw a unique opportunity to grow the business with the leaders in the loyalty program e-commerce space,” Van Dorn said.

“In addition to providing resources to grow the business, the deal gives our angel investors a solid return with continued upside for the PointsHound founders,” Van Dorn said.