Expedia accepteert Bitcoin voor hotelboekingen

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Expedia, the big online travel site, announced on Wednesday it will begin accepting bitcoin for hotel bookings through its website, becoming the first major travel-agency to take the digital currency. If the reception is good, the company said it expects to bring bitcoin to its other service lines as well.

“This is one of those ideas that seemed to have sprung from three different places all at once,” said Michael Gulmann, Expedia’s vice president of global product, explaining how the company arrived at the decision. The company’s engineers were starting to think about bitcoin, and the company’s product and business developers were as well, he explained. They also were hearing from customers.

The company is starting with hotels essentially as a test of the system, he explained. “We want to start at a reasonable, small place,” he said, and see if it will be feasible to expand it to other parts of the business. If the trial works well, and if customer support is there, he expects the company will start taking bitcoin for other bookings as well. “Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely,” he said.

Expedia, which is using Coinbase for bitcoin processing, won’t hold the digital currency it receives, but that’s not “a statement on bitcoin, pro or con,” Mr. Gulmann explained. Rather, Coinbase’s default setting is for a daily settlement back into U.S. dollars.

Bitcoin has grown over the past 18 months beyond the small band of enthusiasts, libertarians, and anarchists who had been using it since its inception in 2009. More than 60,000 retailers now accept it world-wide, and it is attracting more venture-capital funding, which is running at a pace 30% higher than last year. Still the price continues to wildly fluctuate, but even after falling sharply this year, it remains well above the price it fetched at the beginning of 2013.

Bitcoin has also attracted controversy, including the collapse of exchange Mt. Gox, the arrest of prominent backer Charlie Shrem and the closure of the notorious “Amazon of online drugs,” the Silk Road.

Expedia is the latest big-name retailer to embrace bitcoin. Overstock.com started accepting it in January, and the Chicago Sun-Times began accepting it in April. Dish Network announced in May that it would start accepting bitcoin. There are other travel-related services out there that take bitcoin, some smaller individual travel agencies and 9Flats, an online apartment rental site. But none have the size or exposure of Expedia, which bills itself as the world’s largest full-service travel site.

Mr. Gulmann said the company isn’t expecting a groundswell of bitcoin-related business, despite the internal optimism about it. But they do see it as part of their future, primarily because they see it as another way to serve their customers. “If we’re solving a customer need then we’re going to take it,” he said.

Bron: http://blogs.wsj.com/mone(...)-for-hotel-bookings/

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Op woensdag 11 juni 2014 16:00 schreef Klaploper het volgende:
Ik heb nog iets van 18,5 bitcoins over van tijden terug, kan ik daar een vakantie boeken? Wordt wel weer tijd.

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The company is starting with hotels essentially as a test of the system, he explained. “We want to start at a reasonable, small place,” he said, and see if it will be feasible to expand it to other parts of the business. If the trial works well, and if customer support is there, he expects the company will start taking bitcoin for other bookings as well. “Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely,” he said.

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Expedia Inc., which has a current market cap totalling $9.75bn, will also consider expanding its bitcoin policy to other travel sectors in its portfolio. Besides hotels, Expedia provides a booking platform for airline and cruise tickets, as well as rental cars and leisure activities. It reported revenues of $1.2bn in the last quarter.

The company’s entry to the bitcoin economy could have a significant impact due to the size of its business. Consumers booked 146 million room nights through Expedia last year, for example. Expedia competes with firms like Priceline in the online booking space.

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Op woensdag 11 juni 2014 16:11 schreef Nattekat het volgende:
Maar wat gaan ze er mee doen? Dumpen hoop ik toch niet...

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Expedia, which is using Coinbase for bitcoin processing, won’t hold the digital currency it receives, but that’s not “a statement on bitcoin, pro or con,” Mr. Gulmann explained. Rather, Coinbase’s default setting is for a daily settlement back into U.S. dollars.

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Op woensdag 11 juni 2014 16:26 schreef Nattekat het volgende:

[..]

Slecht nieuws dus. Als je het doet, doe het dan goed. Dit maakt bitcoin enkel kapot

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But they will grow it [de bitcoin economie] indirectly and they are a sign that the bitcoin economy is growing.
How do they grow it indirectly ? By showing that they accept it to all customers (millions of people) thus earning more respectability for bitcoin. By improving the confidence of people in the fact that they can get something of value for their bitcoins. If an expedia customer saw that expedia accepts bitcoin, he will remember that bitcoin can be used next time he books an hotel or a flight so his mind will more easily accept to recognise value in bitcoin.

So it's not the transactions themselves that will be significant. It is the fact, it is the signal, it is the advertising, it is the networking effect.

Also don't forget about professional customers of Expedia that will more and more accept bitcoin themselves. They will look into ways to spend them directly rather than convert them into fiat. Hotels and flights is an important service for professionals and businesses so this is closing a loop for those who have BTC to spend.

Closing loops lowers the needs for exchanges and conversions. Closing loops grows the BTC economy and builds the fondation for mass-scale adoption.