Most marketplaces process payments through Stripe / PayPal / Adyen, take a fee, and pass the rest to hosts. We considered that. We rejected it.
Here's the alternative we built: travellers buy Greety points up-front. Points cost $0.10 each, sold in packages from $50 to $500. Points sit in a wallet until you book. Bookings lock points in escrow until both sides confirm completion. Hosts cash points out at $0.09 — Greety keeps the spread.
The float matters
Travellers buy in $100 chunks but spend $20–30 per booking, so at any given moment we're sitting on weeks of unused points. Earn even 4% on that and you're paying for the back-end engineering.
The dispute math also matters. Stripe disputes cost $15 per chargeback regardless of outcome. Points disputes cost zero — we just don't release the escrow. When the median Stripe-processed marketplace runs 0.5% chargeback, that's $7.50 lost per $1,500 of GMV. Disappears at our model.
Why escrow is the product
The points-in-escrow mechanic isn't just about preventing fraud. It creates a fundamentally different dynamic at the meet itself. Neither party is thinking about payment — it's already handled. The host doesn't have to chase, the traveller doesn't have to tip, the awkward money conversation doesn't happen. The meet is just a meet.
When we surveyed hosts about their biggest anxiety before a Greety meet, "will I get paid" ranked below "will they cancel last minute" and "will we get along." That's the escrow working.
It's not anti-Stripe
We use Stripe (and Revolut, and Crypto.com) for the on-ramp from fiat to points. We just don't use it for the marketplace itself. The on-ramp is a commodity; the internal currency is the moat.
One platform that copied this model in a different vertical raised at a 12× revenue multiple. The float is real money.
— Samir D., CTO
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