Bilt Appoints Sam Bakhshandehpour as President of Local Merchants

Bakhshandehpour will lead Bilt's expansion across dining, hotels, travel, retail, and neighborhood commerce.

Published on Feb. 18, 2026

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Bilt, the membership platform for where you live, has appointed Sam Bakhshandehpour as the President of Local Merchants. In this role, Bakhshandehpour will lead Bilt's continued expansion across various sectors, including dining, hotels, travel, retail, and neighborhood commerce, as the company aims to build a national ecosystem connecting where people live with where they dine, travel, and shop.

Why it matters

Bilt has redefined loyalty by enabling members to earn rewards on housing, the single largest consumer expense. The appointment of Bakhshandehpour, an experienced global hospitality and travel executive, underscores Bilt's ambition to deepen member engagement and deliver measurable value to its growing network of merchant partners.

The details

Bakhshandehpour will lead the strategic growth of Bilt's merchant platform, partnering with leading restaurant groups, hotel and travel operators, premium retailers, and lifestyle brands. He brings extensive global hospitality, travel, and investment expertise to Bilt, having previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of José Andrés Group and the President and CEO of sbe Entertainment.

  • Bilt was launched in June 2021.

The players

Sam Bakhshandehpour

The newly appointed President of Local Merchants at Bilt, with extensive experience in the global hospitality and travel industry.

Ankur Jain

The Founder and CEO of Bilt, who stated that Bakhshandehpour is the perfect addition to the team to bring Bilt's vision to life.

Bilt

The membership platform for where you live, which allows members to earn rewards on rent, mortgage, and HOA payments, and has built a network of over 5.5 million homes across the country.

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What they’re saying

“We're building far more than a traditional loyalty platform: we've created a membership for where you live, connecting housing, hospitality, retail, and local commerce at scale.”

— Ankur Jain, Founder and CEO of Bilt (BusinessWire)

“I've spent nearly three decades building and operating hospitality platforms at scale. Bilt is building the connective layer between those experiences and the everyday lives of members. The future of loyalty lies at the intersection of where people live and where they spend their time, and that requires an integrated ecosystem delivering measurable value for both consumers and the operators who serve them.”

— Sam Bakhshandehpour, President of Local Merchants at Bilt (BusinessWire)

The takeaway

Bilt's appointment of an experienced global hospitality and travel executive to lead its local merchant expansion highlights the company's ambition to build an integrated ecosystem that connects where people live with their everyday spending and experiences, delivering value to both consumers and merchants.