Customers of Expedia are now allowed to pay for over 700,000 hotels using cryptocurrencies, thanks to Travala.
Crypto Payment on Expedia Now Possible
Over 700,000 Expedia Group hotels and accommodations are now available for users to pay via cryptocurrencies, thanks to work put in by crypto-friendly travel booking platform Travala. Users can pay for hotel bookings and more with over 30 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and the other leading cryptos. Despite the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown in several countries, Travala has experienced a 170% surge in booking revenues from its over 2 million properties in 230 countries globally.
Travala, which is a cryptocurrency-friendly travel booking platform, announced on Monday that over 700,000 Expedia Group hotels and accommodations would be available on its website. As such, users can pay for their bookings using over 30 cryptocurrencies in addition to traditional payment methods. This latest development is possible because of the recent partnership between Travala and Expedia Partner Solutions (EPS).
Expedia and Travala Join Forces
In 2018, Expedia launched EPS Rapid as a way for travel companies to gain access to its portfolio of hundreds of thousands of properties. The company has more than 35 property types in more than 35,000 destinations across the globe. Travala was founded in 2017, and it is one of the largest booking companies in the world, providing access to more than 2 million hotels and accommodations spots in 230 countries.
In its blog post, Travala wrote that over 700,000 Expedia Group hotels and accommodations are now available via Travala.com. This latest development is powered by EPS’ versatile API, Rapid. On their website, travellers can book trips using over 30 cryptocurrencies made available to them. Some of the cryptocurrencies they accept include BTC, ETH, BCH, BNB, and AVA, which is the native coin of Travala.
Expedia was popular for accepting BTC on its website. However, the hotel company dropped the crypto payment option in 2018 due to the challenges of the sector.
The CEO of Travala, Juan Otero, noted that cryptocurrency adoption is on the rise, and the company wants to ensure that users have payment options and transparent pricing for every trip or hotel they book. “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,” he added.
Crypto Use Expands
On Saturday, Travala revealed that its native coin, AVA, has been added to the Travelbybit point of sale (POS) system. This will enable the coin to be used in purchasing goods and services at over 500 merchant spots in Australia. The company started offering Booking.com’s accommodation listings on its website back in November 2019. They later merged with Travelbybit after receiving some financial backings from Binance in May this year.
In Travala’s June report, the company revealed that the overall booking revenue generated for last month was $184,296. This represents a 170% increase from what was experienced in the previous month. The surge in revenue could be due to the relaxing of lockdown measures in most countries across the world. In general, 59% of all the bookings were used using cryptocurrencies, with 21% of them paying in Bitcoin. Otero stated that their latest month-on-month data indicates that consumer confidence and the desire to travel is returning back to normal. This is evident with the 81% increase in room night bookings and website traffic going up by 50% week-on-week.