Cryptocurrency travel agency Travala.com announced that it started a collaboration with Binance Chain aiming to decentralize its services. Travala.com intends to roll out decentralized reviews, decentralized accommodation bookings, a decentralized referral system and a decentralized salesforce. The firm’s CEO Juan Otero explained that — in the future — users will be dealing directly with the property owners, leveraging blockchain’s disintermediation potential: “Under this decentralized model, accommodation seekers will be able to book stays without the need for an intermediary. Said another way, individuals seeking to rent an apartment, bedroom, or hotel room will be able to deal directly with property …

Travala.com has announced that they will incorporate VeChain’s VET token as a payment option for travelers on their crypto-friendly booking platform. Users can now use the token to book homes and hotels around the world. Juan Otero, CEO of Travala.com, believes that through the partnership, the company will continue to increase cryptocurrency adoption across the sector. The VeChain Foundation echoed these sentiments, and likewise noted an increasing surge in “consumer appetite for modern payment alternatives and scalable blockchain solutions.” The VeChain Foundation has partnered with a number of companies in recent weeks, including the accounting and consulting firm, Grant Thornton …

With the global air industry in turmoil due to pandemic-induced flight delays and cancellations, a startup in Bulgaria is providing the option for travellers to receive compensation in Bitcoin. Compensation via the Colibra app is available to passengers who experience a flight delay of one hour or more. The Bulgaria startup has been offering inconvenienced travelers compensation in fiat since it commenced operations in June 2019, but has now added crypto as a payment option. As BTC is a volatile asset, users can choose whether they want to lock in the price on the day they register for their flight, …

Travala.com has recently added an additional 600,000 hotels to its crypto-powered online travel platform thanks to a recent partnership with booking giant, Agoda. Travala’s CEO, Juan Otero, told Cointelegraph that the number of properties on the platform has now reached over 2.2 million in total. He claimed: “We can safely say we are the world's largest blockchain-based online travel agency by number of accommodation options available with over 2,200,000 options to book covering 90,124 destinations.” Agoda is a travel industry giant that — according to company data website Owler — employs over 4,300 people and has a yearly revenue of …

Cryptocurrency travel platform Travala.com saw the number of rooms booked through its platform grow sharply after a recent integration with booking giant Expedia. According to Travala.com CEO Juan Otero, the firm’s booking revenue increased by 75% in the two weeks after partnering with Expedia. The overall number of bookings grew by 68% over the same period. Otero explained that the portion of bookings paid for with crypto assets has also sharply increased: “We’re also seeing a sharp increase in the number of bookings paid with cryptocurrencies, particularly in the native AVA token as the preferred crypto payment option after Bitcoin. …

The global travel industry ground to a standstill after governments worldwide announced strict lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19. At the Unitize virtual blockchain conference on July 6, Juan Otero, the co-founder and CEO of the Binance-backed online crypto travel agency Travala, said that the platform experienced a steep drop in booking volumes. Otero stated that till February, Travala was seeing exponential growth with a consistent rise in booking volumes. But as the coronavirus pandemic reached crisis levels, the firm saw an 80–90% drop in total bookings within a few weeks. Recovery around the corner? However, it appears that …

Expedia now allows its over 700,000 accommodations to be booked with cryptocurrency through crypto travel platform Travala.com. According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph by Travala.com on July 6, the firm added over 700,000 accommodations to its crypto-powered travel platform’s already over 2 million options available in 230 countries. Senior Vice President at Expedia Group Alfonso Paredes said that the company aims to scale up Travala.com’s business faster than it did expand so far. Furthermore, he said that the firm also recognizes innovation and the importance of allowing users to choose their preferred payment method. This is the result of …

The word “blockchain” is no longer perceived as something exotic and super innovative, partly because large companies have found various uses for this technology and customers have begun to understand how it works. On the other hand, the growing adoption and awareness of blockchain has led to the fact that since 2017, many projects have used the technology solely for marketing purposes. The tourism industry is no exception. Some of the initiatives related to the use of blockchain for traveling failed to materialize, with some cases proving that the majority of decentralized travel projects had nothing to do with the …

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has a plenary meeting scheduled on June 24 to assess the progress of Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) worldwide in enforcing the organization’s “travel rule”. According to Pawel Kuskowski at Forbes, the FATF meeting will be held virtually in two weeks to discuss the organization’s guidelines intended to make VASPs compliant with anti-money laundering (AML) and Anti-Terrorist Financing (ATF) regulations. He says FATF member jurisdictions “must demonstrate progress” on implementing the travel rule, as their efforts will be reviewed at the June 24 meeting. Background on the travel rule In June 2019, the FATF …

According to a June 1 announcement, Travala.com also saw its monthly revenue increase by 205% in May compared to April. Still, while the platform is seeing more traction compared to April, May also saw a 60% decrease in room nights booked compared to March. Travala.com sees bookings surge as travel restrictions are lifted Juan Otero, Travala.com’s CEO, told Cointelegraph that the platform is seeing more use as the rest of the travel industry. He explained that domestic travel is seeing growth as the restrictions are being lifted. He said: “We’re fortunate to see our users coming back as soon as …

Travala.com’s proprietary token (AVA) joined the list of crypto assets accepted by cryptocurrency payment processor, CoinGate. According to an exclusive announcement sent to Cointelegraph on May 21, CoinGate has integrated Travala.com’s native AVA token into its payment system — reportedly used by over 5,000 merchants. CoinGate users will now also be able to buy AVA by bank transfer, phone credit, and soon with debit cards. Improving the token’s usefulness The addition of the AVA token to CoinGate’s service adds payment functionality to the asset that so far could be earned from referrals, loyalty rewards, and used to access travel discounts …

Hotel booking service Travala.com and flight booking website TravelByBit — both of which accept cryptocurrencies as payment — announced a merger of their platforms. According to an announcement on May 20, Travala.com and TravelByBit will merge to become a platform allowing users to book from over 2 million hotels and 600 airlines. An initiative backed by Binance Both the companies are backed by the leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. The exchange’s CEO Changpeng Zhao praised the firms as he believes they are able to provide a state-of-the-art travel booking service for the crypto community. Travala.com currently supports payments in fiat and …