In both cases the answer is that there are companies with tools out there that can handle this and most other technical or risk related questions a hotelier might understandably have. Also, they might be worried that they would need to have their prices continually fluctuating to keep up with the latest exchange rate valuation. For a start, with thousands of cryptocurrencies out there, hoteliers would have to continually review which ones they want to accept and which not. “There’s a lot of questions that hoteliers might be worried about here. Basically you’ve got to ask yourself, does accepting crypto leave better off net? Right now it probably doesn’t, but that might change in time.”Īlex Barros, chief marketing and innovation officer, Beonprice, a revenue management & total profitability platform for the hospitality sector There are also tax implications in some jurisdictions, making extra‐accounting record necessary. If you’re thinking about this consider that all these payment platforms charge suppliers a small fee and of course there are the implementation resources required to do this. In other words, they’re adding crypto as they might add any other non‐major currency they don’t currently accept or operate in, just like they might add South Korean won or Singapore dollars – and almost certainly they’re immediately converting that cryptocurrency into ‘fiat currency’ (the normal, real world, non‐digital money we all know and love, in order to avoid any exchange rate volatility risks). But you need to understand that in almost all cases they are using some kind of intermediary platform to handle the payment such as Coinbase or BitPay. “There are some travel companies – and many consumer businesses in general – that are now starting to accept crypto. Matthew Chapman, co-founder and CTO, Vibe, a travel booking technology provider For all these reasons, and many more believe me, in the coming years we don’t see this as being a big thing with the exception of perhaps a very small number of hotels.” The whole deposit process too, when you check-in to hold your card for say the mini-bar or damages, would also be quite difficult as there’s no way to do that currently with crypto – you’d pay a deposit, but then by the time the refund comes the value of that crypto could be different.
Even PayPal, AmazonPay or other alternative payment methods is a stretch for most. That’s because most hotels are still struggling even to take a credit card payment over the internet – instead capturing your details but then charging you with the physical card on arrival. But once we explained the complications of actually allowing guests to pay with crypto there was no further interest, particularly as a payment method for in-present payments. “We’ve had one or two hotel groups ask about this for sure. James Montague, senior director security & integrations, Shiji Group, a hospitality technology provider So is the travel industry really on the edge of a crypto revolution? Should travel business be exploring this? And what do industry members need to consider when it comes to the technology and risks?īelvera Partners rounds up views from technology experts in the travel industry: Even Bitcoin cash machines are proving popular too – having initially appeared in petrol stations and malls in the US, they are now coming to major airports in Spain too.Ĭlearly these are outliers though. Meanwhile, in the aviation space, Air Baltic started accepting payments way back in 2014 and Spanish airline Vueling most recently announced plans to start accepting crypto from 2023 too. In fairness, there’s a lot more crypto-related activity in travel than most might initially believe.Įxpedia has over 700,000 hotels available for booking via Bitcoin (and 30 other cryptocurrencies) and Pavilion Hotels and Resorts – an APAC‐headquartered chain with hotels around the world – started accepting payments in 40 different cryptocurrencies in July this year. But there’s one very popular journey many around the world are taking right now that the travel industry doesn’t seem to be paying attention to: crypto. The travel sector exists to get people from A to B and provides everything they need in between. Technology Is crypto too risky? Here’s what travel tech experts have to say. Should travel businesses invest in crypto?
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