Travala.com, a Binance-backed online travel agency, has inked a deal with Expedia, allowing the travel giants customers to book over 700,000 listed accommodations using cryptocurrencies.
Announced on Monday, the collaboration between the two companies was made under Expedia Group Partner Services (EPS) that allows Travala.com to connect using a Rapid application program interface (API).
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This opened up a massive market for the cryptocurrency adoption as Expedia lists around 70,000 accommodations with over 2 million options available in 230 countries.
According to Expedia Group’s senior vice president Alfonso Paredes, this integration will help the Australian crypto startup to scale up its business faster than it did before. He also stressed that the partnership was the result of Expedia’s attempt to offer its customers more innovative payment options.
Notably, in 2018, Expedia decided to take Bitcoin payments for its bookings, but the plan was later shelved.
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Travala.com offers payment options with more than 30 digital currencies including Bitcoin.
Juan Otero, the CEO of Travala, also pointed out that it is difficult to integrate crypto payments option on Expedia, given the complexity of its existing infrastructure.
“Travala is one of the very few projects in the crypto space that is bridging the gap to traditional multinationals in a huge way,” Otero added.
The push to bring crypto in the mainstream
Founded in 2017, Travala also partnered with other travel portals to bring crypto payment options on them. Last November, the startup partnered with Booking.com, another big accommodations booking platform with over 90,000 listings, facilitating crypto payments. With that, the company saw a revenue rise of 33 percent.
Travala.com also merged its platform with TravelByBit, a crypto-based flight booking platform, offering a wider range of services to its customers.
