Bitcoin Forum

Went to pay for a hotel with Expedia and there was no Bitcoin option. I e-mailed the site and got this response:


For those of us that actually spend our bitcoins this is a big blow.

Edit: Looks like it's still an option at most hotels. Not sure why the customer service person (Chris) was so ill informed.

Eh.  I'm sorry you're disappointed about this, but very few people spend their coins anyway,  and this doesn't surprise me.   What's the advantage btc has over cash for expedia?  There probably isn't any advantage so they ditched the option.

Maybe you should buy one of those debit cards you can preload with bitcoins? Or could just show up at the hotel and explain about bitcoins, concierge will give you the best suite right away, probably with 3% discount because no credit card fee :)

Expedia is the parasite middleman Bitscoin was created to eliminate. And did. But only for bitcoiners, ordinary people still use it.

Why have Bitcoin at all if nobody will spend it?

The advantage for Expedia is that they have a booked reservation that is already paid for at the time of booking. No need to wait to see if the person shows up for their reservation or wait for the credit card to go through at the end of the hotel stay.

The advantage for me is that I don't have to convert my bitcoins to dollars to pay for my hotel stay.

At least cheapair.com has hotels and I can use vrbo.com.

just wondering..
even when using bitcoin,
 when u get to hotel do you still need to hand over credit card for incidentals (mini-bar/damage/loss)

I think we should send a strongly-worded letter of protest to Expedia, and sleep on park benches and flophouses as a sign of protest until they start taking BTC again. They just have to understand that fiat ponzi is unsustainable, it's like they don't even know they can save 3% by using bitcoins.

Sometimes they ask for one. I have a bitcoin debit card that wouldn't work if they ever tried to charge anything since there are no bitcoins on it. They usually take that then I pay for cash on anything charged to the room.

And since Expedia no longer accepts Bitcoin I'll mention that one time I reserved a room with that prepaid debit card, got to the hotel and they said it was already paid for. No charge ever went on my debit card. Enjoy.

sad.. i was the one who actually broke that new here early.. and got shatted on.. :D

Yes that true.You cant stay anonymous on expedia afterall so why would you want to pay with bitcoins unless you are one of the few ones who have thousands of coins and do not want to convert their coins first

Maybe if you said Expedia no longer accepts blockchain it would have gone better.

Or word it in a way that brings up block size or Satoshi.

Some of us like to use a currency that isn't losing value on purpose.

I started getting paid 100% in bitcoins starting last January. The value of my currency is higher now than it was then. The same cannot be said for the dollar.

So will this make the bitcoin price go lower as the steam news made it go higher on them accepting as payment news  ???

Well why have gold and silver when neither one is used for currency anymore?   It's the same basic principle.

Most people have fiat and would have to buy bitcoin in order to spend it, which is silly.  That's why bitcoin isn't getting used as a currency.  And I have yet to hear a good reason why I should spend my bitcoin.  Fiat is so much easier to use.

FWIW, I just paid with bitcoin within the past week to reserve a hotel room using Expedia. So this is news to me!?!

Can reserve/pay for a hotel room with $. With BTC? Save even more money by sleeping behind a dumpster :)

The writing has been on the wall about this for a while. Here is an article from 2015:

http://www.coindesk.com/expedia-exec-purchases-with-bitcoin-are-down-40/


Looks like they gave it another year, demand continued to plummet and they axed it. I don't think bitcoin will ever be a currency - people tend to hoard their coins. Companies like Expedia should have offered an alt like doge, which people are happy to spend, but instead of substituting an appropriate alt, they just scrapped the crypto option altogether.

You do understand that Bitcoin's worth is predicated on its usefulness as money, correct?

A travel company marketing to neckbeards who never leave the basement... what could go wrong?

Yeah, must've felt great after all that time... delayed gratification!

The fact that you find it easier to spend fiat implies that you have fiat that could be used to buy bitcoins. Fiat that is built to lose value. So you are basically saying that you would rather hold a currency that loses value so that you can spend it instead of holding a currency that gains in value because you don't want to spend it.

My average purchase price for bitcoins over the course of 2015 was $250. I was able to convert 100% of my paycheck to bitcoins because I have actually found a way to use bitcoins for about 80% of my spending. The rest I sell for the local currency.

Shame. In my city at least, there are some local vendors who have begun supporting BTC lately. So I guess we're just a hydra now?

It really is all about demand, as another poster mentioned. For them to maintain a large infrastructure to support BTC they need to be getting enough volume to justify it. I guess the volume isn't there anymore.

No. he's saying that when he gets paid in fiat, like most people do, he doesn't rush over to a bitcoin vending machine and pay 14% over spot, or hook up with you on localbitcoin and get raped by whatever usurious premium localbitcoiners charge.
Instead, he spends it on shit he needs to buy before next paycheck, and if the USD gets devalued by a fraction of a percent during that month, so be it. This way, he saves some money and plenty of time.
So now you know.

Ahh thanks for the clarification because that's what I was saying he should do.



Or just use bitwage. But I'll keep that secret to myself.

I didnt know that Expedia were accepting bitcoins  as payment there is any other company on the same market,hotels allowing to pay with bitcoin or were that the first and the only one accepting kindly let me know.

Just went over to find out what Bitwage is. Tried to reach support, not online, redirected me to a faq. Which wasn't there. eventually found this: https://faq.bitwage.com/hc/en-us/articles/202898249-Contractors-and-Employees-with-Regular-Wages , but still don't see the terms, exchange rates, associated fees, or anything, actually, which would make me want to send my wages to ... what is that? Why does the website look like an abandoned blog?

So share your secret, Elwar, spread the good word. Educate me.

http://www.cheapair.com accepts bitcoins for airfare and hotels.

vrbo.com also accepts bitcoins.

I used a service shipsandtripstravel.com to book a cruise this past year.

BitWage allows you to direct deposit your pay to a bank account number they provide you. That money is automatically converted to bitcoins (to an address you provide them).

They say there is no fee but I have noticed that the exchange rate I get is about 1% above the current price.

Since most companies allow you to direct deposit your paycheck into multiple bank accounts at different percentages you can choose how much you want converted by creating multiple direct deposits. I went with 100%. I get paid in dollars and live in Europe so I have no need for dollars.

^^
Where are they located (country/street address)? Thus far, all I can find is pictures of teenagers here https://www.bitwage.com/company#team
Where is the company registered? Do they have IRL offices? What business model can they possibly use and charge no fees?
This is so Bitcoin, so NeoBee, so Bitfunder...

To me bitcoin is mostly digital gold, payment method is only 2nd option. So worry not, Bitcoin is still acceptable in far more important branches. (hotel industry also)

Now this I heard a while ago. So will they be going the same way now that expedia has done away with accepting our coins for services rendered?

There probably want enough interes for the bitcoin as payment option for them, so they shut it down, but that doesnt mean that they
wont reconsider and return it at some point in future. If a lot of people contact them, in hopes of bitcoin being re-enabled, theres a chance that
they might return it. Until then, you should try to find some alternatives that do.

Shame but I can't say I'm surprised. Not alot of noise was made about it. I wonder what the reasoning was behind dropping it. I can't imagine it costs them to keep the option open and there must've been a few people who gave them business.

It's funny to see that certain merchants are stopping with accepting Bitcoin possibly because of the lacking payments via Bitcoin. Here is the funny part : It doesn't cost them anything if that payment option isn't being used very often. They just have to pay a certain fee once some one is actually using the Bitcoin option. If no one is using it, it won't cost them even a single penny. By stopping accepting Bitcoin they miss out on potential revenue via Bitcoin. Very stupid.

Perhaps the option to use Bitcoin as a payment method wasn't very popular among Expedia customers and the management decided to drop support for Bitcoin because they saw no use for it other than bragging rights. I think if Expedia had not limited Bitcoin payments only to US customers the demand could have been higher as a lot of people in Europe and Asia use cryptos as well. It's a pity nevertheless.

I agree with you there.
I would think that bitcoin's acceptable would be in the opposite direction by now. Being more widely accepted instead of it shrinking. So is dell soon not going to accept bitcoin too  >:(
As New Egg has a while ago if I am not mistaken.

I read about one experience some guy had trying to cancel a reservation he had paid for in bitcoins. Expedia had no idea what he was on about. Bitcoin is kind of a customer service nightmare.

Exactly. If Satoshi wanted Bitcoin to be a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, he would've said so in the white paper.

I do remember a place that buy and sells gold use to transact with bitcoin. But soon after they removed it. I don't know why all the sudden they jumped on the bandwagon but then when it dips they haul ass away from it faster than a man on fire.  :-\

Well that were a bad use of bitcoin as we all know that bitcoin hasnt a reverse option,in this case they Expedia should return the bitcoins to the wallet,but looked more a test then anything else.But as hotel they should be interested into bitcoin,as payment processor as its free and pure profit,anyway they will loose some costumers they could had with bitcoin ,but well that wont affect them too much as they have a good service.

I don't hold cash, I invest it.  You got lucky if your buy price was 250.  Bitcoin could easily crash.

Yes, inflation eats away at purchasing power which is all the more reason to spend it.  So I do.  Why should I buy bitcoin just to spend it?  
Edit: Blacula X said it for me, thank you.  OP, why would I want my paycheck to be in bitcoin?  You are aware of how volatile it can be, right?  That could be disastrous.

Bottom line is Bitcoin will never be a replacement for small retail transactions. If it suddenly took off in popularity and hit MasterCard/Visa type volume, blocks would fill up and transactions would take 3 years to confirm if ever. YES this could theoretically be fixed with changes to the client, but there is ZERO chance that will occur since it takes 19 months for developers/miners to adopt even the simplest changes.

So what is BTC good for? It's a good alternative to gold and silver for capital preservation. For micro transactions, just convert a bit each month to fiat and use the rich existing network of micro transaction systems all of which are way superior to the current BTC implementation for that purpose.

Use Cheapair.com - they are all about bitcoin

When you're dealing with a company like Expedia, you can expect customer service in regard to Bitcoin to go down. Bitcoin has been banned in some states of the US (like New York) abd the powers at be want it to stay that way. Central bankers obviously persuaded Expedia to cease accepting Bitcoin.

ditto this, tried expedia earlier in the year and they only offered purchase with bitcoin when hotel packages were included with airfare anyways.

cheapair.com found me a better rate and no hassle bitcoin payment at checkout.

don't forget to buy back some coins if you spend..

yeah, too bad.  but customer service was a nightmare.

I wonder if keeping bitcoin payments as one of the possible payment options is so problematic, and expensive to maintenance?
I was under the impression that bitcoin payments can be introduced/organized and maintained at lower cost than credit card payments usually are.

The only problem with Bitcoin being a gold substitute is ...wait, did I say only? I meant I'll start a list:
1. Gold has a history of being used as a store of value. Longer than the recorded history of mankind. Bitcoin ain't got that.
2. We already got gold. Value ain't created as easily as new "stores of value." For Bitcoin to acquire value, something gots to *lose* value.
3. Gold has a nice quality: It stays fresh. you put it somwhere, and in a thousand years, it's as good as it ever was -- low maintenance; easy to store.
    Bitcoin network burns a trainload of coal a minute to secure Bitcoin, regardless of whether you transact on it or not.
    So roughly like trying to use Ice cream as a store of value -- your fridge stops running, your wealth is gone.
    Would you use ice cream to store your wealth?

I'm going to have to agree to this. Although I encourage others to spend Bitcoins on my wares I don't generally spend very many, just collect.

It's sad that they would just stop without warning though. Did you ever get a reason from them? That email seemed really vague. "Sorry, we don't accept bitcoin anymore... If you don't like this answer please call 1-800-who-care(s)."

Bitcoin is not banned in New York.  Why you lie?

As to the rest of your post.........Wait is it April Fools?

That's too bad. They were one of the earlier companies to accept bitcoin. Oh well, if they didn't have demand for it, I guess that's what happens. Hopefully Steam will have some decent demand in time and be more successful with it.

It's like this. Imagine you're Expedia and 99.9% of your customers use CC. The other .1%? Most of them would use CC if presented with no other options.

You decide to go after that fraction of that .1% anyway, and let BitPay handle the mechanics  ...which, ofc, they can't.
Because people don't ask BitPay for refunds, they call Expedia. And bitcoiners are savvy financiers, they want what's coming to them, and by gosh they'll get it. They tie up Expedia phones, first getting angry at the staff because selfsame staff don't know WTF bitcoin is, and then go on to rage about unsustainable ponzi that is the legacy finance and the Rothschild lizard family.

TL;DR: Was a guy with a food truck on reddit who tried accepting BTC & stopped. He said that the people paying with BTC chewed his ear off about bitcoin, ignoring the growing line of hungry dull normals paying with boring normal money.  
He stopped taking BTC.

Well, it doesn't necessarily surprise me that there are some elitists or people within the community that would do stuff like this and start ruining Bitcoin's image for the people they talk to.

Were they just rambling on about Bitcoin and offering nothing constructive? How long would they sit there? If it was anything longer than the time it takes to make the transaction, they must have some sort of condition. There should be no normal person who would do something like that.

Here's the food truck guy:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/4eccqr/update_i_tried_accepting_bitcoin_at_my_small_food/

But this is just the one that sprang to mind, i guess it wasn't just bitcoiners but anti-bitcoiners too. But end result is the same: accepting BTC is much more of hassle than people expect it to be.

Well the issue is not with Expedia dropping Bitcoin payments but with the Bitcoin community not willing to spend their precious Bitcoins on vacation packages lol. People tend to hoard their coins for long-term investment and use fiat to pay for hotels and air tickets. I don't think Bitcoin will gain a lot of traction as a currency though. It will always be an investment vehicle for speculators. Let me ask you guys this question. If you have $1000 in fiat and $1000 in Bitcoin which one are you going to use to book your hotel and why?

I flat out just dont spend my bitcoin right now so the fact that
expedia would give up on it without a proper chance is silly.

goes to show they shouldnt of been involved to begin with if they
didnt understand that halving and other issues could be coming into
play on whether people are spending right now.

The reason for this, could be the fact that they had few users choosing BTCitcoin payments options over the others and have seen similar cases in the past that bitcoin used to be accepted and then ditched in the future, due to less demand. IMO this move is bad for them and us since it bad for us because simply we love using it and it has it's advantages of itself while compared to other options for this kind of industry but also for them, due to the fact, it won't take too much for this to continue receiving payments in BTCitcoin (at all), and yet they ditched a whole market that would surely grow in the future.

Barely anyone that has invested in Bitcoin has spent, or is planning to spend, their Bitcoin. Especially on a site like expedia, just use your credit card. Don't you have one?

I didn't know expedia accepts bitcoin back then. but yeah they probably figured only few people spend their bitcoin on hotel booking.
I myself would rather turn my btc into fiat for the purpose of booking to hotels.

You might as well get one of the many readily available bitcoin debit cards, BitPay brought out a new one recently.

time to change that.. the more coins actually used the faster adoption really grabs hodl.

btc is perfect for hotel stays vs say over the counter purchases like coffee or gas. because the transaction easily confirms by the time you are out and on your way again.

plus its fun using new methods to pay for the same stuff you've been into for ages. remember the first time you saw one of these?

http://archive.fortune.com/assets/i2.cdn.turner.com/money/galleries/2008/fortune/0810/gallery.mastercard.fortune/images/1960_manual_imprint.cr.jpg

probably not, its pretty old school.

I think they didn't like the fluctuations in Bitcoin's price. The truth is that sometimes it is difficult to include Bitcoin in the books, as keeping track of the profit/losses derived from the sale of services in return for BTC can be challenging. A big company may find complicated to incorporate BTC into their operations, let's hope that Bitcoin startups like BitPay can alleviate this problem.

Are you saying that part of the implied cost for using bitcoin is listening to bitcoiners drone on about bitcoin while you wait for the transaction to confirm?


i'd rather just give shit away for free

dont you tell me that jew banksters aren't at fault here!!!!!

does anyone have try to use that services from outside canada or US?that costumer service not explain about what country that can't use bitcoin as payment anymore. but if expedia really not accept bitcoin anymore in all country,i think its normal,because so little people use and spent their bitcoin,most of them more like to hold and wait for bitcoin halving.

I used Expedia from Europe. Was a gold member for 2 years since I travel a lot. Looks like cheapair will be getting a lot more of my money.

Just goes to show that there are a shitload of people worried about block size for something they don't actually use.

Sad news for Bitcoin. Sometimes, it makes me wonder if some companies are just using Bitcoin payment option as a PR and drop it like a bad habit after they get what they want. This is just a teory, perhaps an emotional one. The real reason might be that it wasn`t as popular payment method as they were excpecting or simply some accounting problems in US due to legal difficulties.

Well that's really disappointing.
I guess it's due to low usage right?
But why stopping accepting it? I mean do they have any fixed costs running when accepting Bitcoin?I can not imagine that.

What if Expedia discontinued the acceptance of bitcoins not necessarily because of minimal usage but because of the extra expense they had to bear due to 3-LAs et al. silently requiring of them to hand over records of those who paid via bitcoins, using the worn excuse of min usage as a cover story?

Expedia probably cancelled paying with Bitcoin for their customers due to the low amount of Bitcoin orders they have received in the system. But I think paying with Bitcoin is a little bit tricky when you need to cancel your reservations and ask for your money back because it's hard to get a refund with a method that is designed to be not refundable. I guess it would be a massive headache to deal with it.

I had to do that once. I called Expedia and they had to get the Coinbase transaction. Then they had me contact Coinbase to give them an address to send to.

That is such a hassle. That is probably one of the reasons that they stopped accepting Bitcoin. It doesn't really matter to most people though.

That, and
https://webproxy.com/browse.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coindesk.com%2Fexpedia-exec-purchases-with-bitcoin-are-down-40%2F&b=28

That was July 22, 2015. No demand, apparently :(

This is the problem using a service like coinbase - they can't just return the money from the address that sent it to them because the sending address was probably one from Coinbase's hot wallet rather than one associated with your account.

Long back Expedia accepted bitcoin, but now it might have not seen more users using bitcoin for their transactions in the bookings. Soon when more people adopt bitcoin once again Expedia might accept bitcoin in their services.

To be Honest i am not so sure that bitcoin will be used for this sort of purchase in the future anyway.  I see it being a reserve currency for all other cryptos, it what they will establish there worth upon.  we see it now if bitcoin goes up alts usually go down and visversa.....

Actually, it's usually the other way around. http://coinmarketcap.com/

The price of Bitcoin is important for his future...

Being able to buy everyday goods doesn't necessarily make bitcoin less valuable. And vice versa, does the fact that you're not able to buy coffee in exchange for gold make gold less valuable? The fact that a major service has dropped bitcoin support shouldn't be perceived as bad for bitcoin's value.

I also booked a hotel with Expedia, paying with Bitcoin within the last month.

Of course not being able to buy coffee with gold makes it less valuable. Gold would be more valuable if spending it on everyday needs obviated the need for other currencies. This is basic, obvious stuff.

But, of course, no one tried to pitch gold as A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, so there's that too.

Well that were a bad use of bitcoin as we all know that bitcoin hasnot a reverse option like paypal ,in this case the Expedia should return the bitcoins to the wallet.
The fact that you find it easier to spend fiat and we need more and more bitcoins shops that accept the bitcoins to be able to make it popular and uses among the masses.

Your bot broke.

Yes, I have fiat that I can use to buy BTC. Most of that fiat is actually invested, not just in stocks and bonds, but in a house, in a car, and other stuff that I buy with it. The money I have in the bank (doing nothing) walkin' 'round money. Money I plan to spend before the next paycheck, and emergency money -- money I may need to access immediately for things I can't buy via CC (think hookers & blow).

It would be stupid for me to pay premium over spot (even if only exchange fees) to buy BTC with that money, because paying extra is stupid.

Yep, the 1% I paid to convert all of my money throughout 2015 at an average rate of $250/BTC was such a waste of money.

Well ya, you bought a scratch ticket that paid you (almost) double. That same scratch game made shitloads of people broke, too. Don't confuse blowing your paychecks into scratch tickets with prudent financial planning.

The Federal Reserve has a stated goal to make sure that the dollar loses value over time. It has a great track record of doing so.

Bitcoin has a built in cap which means that over time the price is meant to go up. It also has a great track record of doing so.

There's not much "chance" in things that are built to do something continuing to do so. Especially with a history of doing exactly that.

I have every confidence that the Federal Reserve will continue doing its job.

You are confusing artificial scarcity with value. BBQ coin "has a built in cap which means that over time the price is meant to go up." The price went up until it didn't.
And yes, the USD is meant to be spent, and if you don't spend it, it will melt. Like an ice cream cone. USD is a shitty store of value, as is the ice cream cone. The trick, both with the USD and the ice cream cone, is to use them correctly. Eat the ice cream before it melts, spend the USD.

And by "spend," I do not mean "convert all of it into BBQ coins, BTC, scratch tickets, or ice cream cones." Invest your surplus.

Expedia has alot of foresight  ::)

when bitcoin hits 1k again, they will probably add it again and recieve some media attention  >:(

Not like they didn't give bitcoin a chance...
"Despite a decline of approximately 40% in bitcoin purchases [:o -ed.], Connie Chung, senior payments product manager at Expedia, says the option to pay with the digital currency will remain as long as there is a demand for it."
That was last July, here (https://webproxy.com/browse.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coindesk.com%2Fexpedia-exec-purchases-with-bitcoin-are-down-40%2F&b=28) :(

Yup, seems like the trend is to keep it under a tarp in the back yard.
No point in accepting a currency no one spends, so rational move on Expedia's part. Good on them.

Why have gold at all if nobody will spend it?

Exactly, this assumption doesn't make much sense.

People will keep using whatever is more comfortable for them. If people get paid in dollars/euro/whatever currency they get paid in, then they are not going to buy an additional currency to buy something because that doesn't make sense, specially when they have to pay extra commissions when converting. So unless buying with Bitcoin means you get to buy at a discount enough that it makes sense to do so, or if you are getting paid directly in Bitcoin, then I don't see much use cases happening any time soon for ordinary people. This doesn't mean the potential to growth isn't immense, because it is a better gold.

Sad news but I can understand their viewpoint.
If not enough demands for bitcoin why should they keep it as payment option?
Also, bitcoin is still not official currency, they have to transfer bitcoin funds to some ''real'' currency, have to think about bitcoin value all the time etc.
They can see that we are not yet mainstream and that bitcoin is still used in just a few places etc.
At least they was open to accept bitcoin and hopefully will try again later.

Interesting point, but I don't know if that situation could be used as free publicity and show off later.
Do you know of any service, company, shop which started to accept bitcoin, cancel btc acceptance it later opened for BTC once again?
(Obviously we are counting out Microsoft mistake earlier this year)

Still seems to work.  I just tried to book Treasure Island Las Vegas with bitcoin and got the Bitcoin Payment option and then got to the Coinbase payment page.

"Travel Purchase Order
$82.28 USD
0.181345 BTC"

Also works with Circus Circus.  Good price for Circus Circus on a weekday.

"$22.18 USD
0.048973 BTC"

It doesn't work for all hotels though.  It only works for hotels that allows Expedia to be the payment processor.  Some hotels don't use Expedia for payment (they only use Expedia for reservations) so you can't pay with bitcoins.  I've booked with both types of hotels before from Expedia.  With the hotels that allow Expedia to process their payments, those rooms are prepaid and I don't have to do anything else when I get there.  The hotels that don't use Expedia for payment processing, there is no Bitcoin payment tab, and I have to pay the hotel directly when I get there (cash or credit.  form of payment does not have to be the same as the one used for reservation since the room wasn't prepaid).  

Not sure why Customer Service said that they've stopped taking bitcoins.  Maybe they've made a decision to stop taking it in the future?

Exactly. Bitcoin clearly has value. Like gold, silver, AAPL shares, Beanies, and all the other stuff that's not money.

Well well, it seems they do. I just checked a few hotels in larger cities and they accept Bitcoin.

I've known that some hotels don't take them due to Expedia not being a payment processor but the city I was looking at had no hotels available with the option. That was my original question to them (do any hotels in this city accept Bitcoin).

I was able to use bitcoin to reserve a room at a Comfort Inn with Expedia last week. It was easy since I had the necessary funds on hand at Coinbase, and Expedia uses Coinbase as their processor, so the confirmation was immediate. Glad to hear the OP's info may not turn out to be official/accurate (not his fault, I'm sure).

Oh well, their problem, not bitcoins.  They will accept it when they have too and they are hoping that day does not come.