Travala Once More Allows Crypto Bookings Of Expedia Hotels

Travala.com stands as an online travel agency (OTA) that holds the backing of the Binance crypto exchange. The OTA has now managed to incorporate support for Expedia bookings, doing so through a partnership that will see Bitcoin payments be possible for the properties of the travel giant, ever since it was discontinued back in 2018.

Going Back To Crypto In A New Way

Travala, an Australia-based booking platform, had made a partnership to use the “Rapid API” of the Expedia Group Partner Services. With this, the company is capable of accessing its list of 700,000 hotels when the partnership was officially made on Monday

With this, Expedia listings can be paid for with 30 different types of cryptocurrency, the transactions themselves being made by users of Travala.com. In the past, Expedia had accepted crypto payment options but had shelved the thing back in 2018.

The Mandatory Kind Words

Juan Otero, the CEO of Travala.com, went to the press to explain to the public about the move. He stated that the Expedia booking flow simply wasn’t built with crypto in mind, contrary to Otero’s firm. As such, Otero stated that Expedia had a small nightmare of issues just to have the Bitcoin payment option working, hence why they scrapped it.

Alfonso Paredes stands as the Senior Vice President of Expedia Partner Services and gave a public statement about the matter, as well. He explained that Expedia has come to recognize that the public’s choice of payment has evolved as time goes on, and stated that this new partnership would help Travala.com scale-up, as well.

Strange Times Make Strange Allies

This partnership stands as a rare event, as it’s a partnership between two competitors in the same field. Expedia stands as the conventional juggernaut of the industry, having well and truly established itself, while Travala stands as the crypto-focused, new on the block rival. Expedia stands as the second-largest OTA the world has to offer, and Otero claimed that Travala stands as one of the few crypto projects that wish to bridge the gap to traditional multinationals in such a big way.

Otero explained that this partnership comes just as the world’s trave business starts to come back from the cataclysmic lows it experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was back in June when the month-over-month booking revenue for Travala managed to see a surge of 170% in value, up to $184,000. Room night bookings saw a month-over-month surge of 81%, as well, heralding the world slowly starting to get back into operation.