More than 700,000 Expedia Group hotels and accommodations are now 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.”
What do you think about paying for Expedia hotels with crypto via Travala? Let us know in the comments section below.
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