Gil Antolin, founder of Luxury World Traveler and a veteran of AI-powered hospitality software, has joined PRIMA VIP INC as a strategic partner, tasked with growing both the supply and demand sides of a platform that converts word-of-mouth referrals into trackable bookings and shared revenue.
The Platform Model
PRIMA connects restaurants, nightlife venues, wellness providers, and experience operators with hotels, concierges, travel professionals, creators, and residential communities. When a trusted partner recommends a business and that recommendation results in a booking, the platform attributes the conversion and distributes a share of revenue back to the referring party. The model is aimed squarely at a long-standing gap in hospitality distribution: the inability to measure — and compensate — the informal influence networks that actually drive guest decisions.
"Hospitality runs on relationships. People ask someone they trust where to eat, where to stay and what to do," said Alex Zhardanovsky, founder of PRIMA. "We are building the infrastructure that turns those recommendations into measurable business. Gil brings an exceptional combination of hospitality relationships, global media reach and AI technology expertise that will help us expand both sides of the network."
Antolin's Credentials
Antolin launched Luxury World Traveler in 2013, scaling it into a global luxury travel media and marketing brand with more than 5 million followers across social platforms. Over that span he has worked with more than 2,000 hotels and produced more than 30 influencer marketing events worldwide. He is also co-founder of two AI-powered hospitality software companies — Worldie AI and M2Lux — giving him both the media relationships and the technology background PRIMA is looking to leverage.
"The future of hospitality is not technology replacing human connection; it is technology making that connection more valuable," Antolin said. "That is what makes PRIMA exciting. It applies AI and intelligent commerce to one of the oldest and most powerful forces in hospitality: trust."
Why Operators Should Watch
For restaurant and hospitality operators, PRIMA's model represents an emerging category of attribution-first distribution — one that sits between traditional online travel agencies and pure social-media marketing. Rather than paying for impressions or listing fees upfront, operators on the platform share revenue only when a referral converts to a booking, a structure that aligns incentives across the network. As restaurant technology continues to evolve around attribution and first-party data, platforms built on verified referral commerce are likely to attract growing attention from both independent operators and multi-unit groups seeking alternatives to high-commission OTA channels.
Antolin's appointment signals PRIMA's intention to expand internationally, leveraging his existing relationships across luxury hotel brands and his experience running large-scale influencer campaigns to recruit both hospitality providers and the distribution partners who surface them to guests. Our partners at Food & Beverage Magazine have also been tracking the convergence of creator-economy tools and foodservice commerce as brands seek measurable ROI from influence-driven channels.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
