More than 700,000 Expedia Group hotels and accommodations arenow available via crypto-friendly travel booking platform Travala.
Bookings can be paid with more than 30 cryptocurrencies, including
bitcoin. Despite covid-19, Travala saw a 170% increase in booking
revenue from its 2 million properties in 230 countries.
Travel With Crypto via Expedia and Travala
Cryptocurrency-friendly
travel booking platform Travala announced on Monday that more than
700,000 Expedia Group hotels and accommodations are now available on its
website. Users can pay for their bookings with more than 30
cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, in addition to traditional
payments. This is possible due to a new partnership between Expedia
Partner Solutions (EPS) and Travala.com.
Expedia launched EPS
Rapid in 2018 to give travel companies access to its portfolio of over
700,000 properties with over 35 property types in more than 35,000
destinations worldwide. Travala.com was founded in 2017 and currently
provides access to more than 2 million hotels and accommodations in 230
countries. Travala wrote:
Powered by EPS’s versatile
API, Rapid, more than 700,000 Expedia Group hotels and accommodations
are now available via Travala.com. On the site, travelers can book trips
using more than 30 forms of cryptocurrency.
Among the cryptocurrencies accepted on Travala.com are BTC, BCH, ETH, BNB, and AVA, Travala’s native coin.
Expedia used to accept BTC on its own website. However, the company dropped the cryptocurrency payment option in June 2018.
Noting
that “cryptocurrency adoption [is] on the rise,” Travala CEO Juan Otero
said: “we want to ensure our users have payment choice and transparent
pricing for every trip booked. EPS Rapid is the best API product in the
travel industry and this partnership unlocks greater accommodation
choice and availability for our users, including 4- and 5-star hotels in
top destinations.”
On
Saturday, Travala announced that AVA has been added to the Travelbybit
point of sale (POS) system so it can now be used for purchases at over
500 merchants across Australia. Travala began offering Booking.com’s
accommodation listings on its platform in November last year and merged
with Travalbybit with backing from Binance in May.
In its June
report, published on July 1, Travala revealed that its overall booking
revenue for June was $184,296, an increase of over 170% from the previous month.
Moreover, 59% of the total bookings were paid with cryptocurrencies in
June, 21% of which were paid with bitcoin. Otero said Monday, “Our
latest month-on-month data shows consumer confidence and the desire for
travel is returning, with an 81% increase in room nights booked and
website traffic up 50% week-on-week.”
source link : https://news.bitcoin.com/700000-expedia-travala-hotels-cryptocurrencies/
