Bitcoin Forum

Football Fans will be able to pay with bitcoin for their accommodation when they visit Russia for this year’s World Cup. Hotels in Kaliningrad, expecting guests from eight countries, are partnering with a local payment provider to offer the service. Booking a room for the day when England plays Belgium will cost approx. $300 in fiat.

Kaliningrad Hotels Team Up with Free-Kassa

Kaliningrad, the capital of Russia’s westernmost region, is one of the host cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The mundial is scheduled to take place in the Russian Federation from June 14 to July 15. The city is expecting teams and supporters from Spain, Belgium, Serbia, England, Switzerland, Croatia, Morocco and Nigeria.

Hotel owners in the Russian exclave have decided to offer their guests the opportunity to pay for their stay in bitcoin. According to local media, a hotel chain has already teamed up with a payment processor to provide the service. Anna Subbotina, manager of Apartments Malina, commented:

        "We are seeing increasing interest in cryptocurrencies. They will gradually come into use as a means of payment."

To read more: https://news.bitcoin.com/russian-hotels-to-surprise-world-cup-fans-with-bitcoin-payments/

That's nice. They're presuming fans & teams are actually gonna turn up..... :D :D

Bring your gasmask & chemical suit.

Are you not reading the news carefully? What does Russian hotels have to do with bitcoin? Payment system that has registration in another country pays Fiat for booking a room. Is it possible to call the reservation with bitcoin? Lol. I am still not sure whether this championship will be held in Russia. It is possible that this championship will boycott.

They are accepting Bitcoin payment via a third party (services like bitpay) and just in kaliningrad.
Btw integrating the video assistant referee (for the first time) is the best news imo in order to limit corruption and referee interference with the final score.

Don't worry, you're not supposed to bring gasmask and chemical suit with you. World Championship will be held in Russia, not in UK

Yes, indeed. More people will know about bitcoin and I am sure they will be interested in it. Then I think the price will grow as the demand will increase. Either way, that is really nice of Russia. I hope they do not ignore it or deceive people. Added to that, not only people will know about bitcoin, but also football players. And since they are rich, they will invest in bitcoin. I am excited to be honest for the world cup.

I am from Russia and I apparently skipped such news, cause of it is the first time I hear something like that!
But the price for hotels stays attached to fiat price. Nowadays the price for bitcoin fell and such payment is going to be about 0,04 BTC, but the price is not stable and in a short time 0,04 BTC can be 300-600-900$ and above. The idea is interesting, but i would rather pay in cash from the start to not skip possible profit from bitcoin's future raise.

It's nice seeing an answer from a Russian citizen. I got your point. I think it's not only you who would think that way after seeing the news since we saw a higher Bitcoin price before than it is now. On the other hand, we are all aware that Bitcoin price flactuates in no particular time. 2018 FIFA World Cap will be held on June and the Bitcoin price could go higher (though can go even much lower too) on or before that month. Who knows?

I just hope that there will be fans who will still support / use this payment method regardless of the BTC-USD conversion at the time.

Those are good news, and I keep seeing adoption related news all over the world, which proves that crypto interest is still pretty much alive, and that is a great thing. It would be amazing is these payments could be done using the lightning network, but that is highly unlikely. Germany National Tourism Center also added an option for payments with cryptocurrency. I guess we are seeing an increased offer in the tourism business.


I know this is a bit off topic but I need to say that I'm still quite skeptic about this new system. I've read some news from countries where the system is being tested as well, but it's not working well because it's not like tennis, when an image is made public and leaves no question for doubts. Usually referees decide using that system, without showing the image to anyone, and it still depends on the decision of the referee that sometimes make strange decisions. Hopefully they will be more strict in the World Cup, and no margin for doubt will exist.

Nobody actually knows. There was the time when every positive news from crypto world pumped bitcoin's price, but it seems this year all positive news stay death. Will the World Cup move crypto prices to the top, I do not know, I just hope the price we see today it is kinda the bottom after which everything will stabilize and the bull market will come back. :(

that is indeed nice and a good marketing.
Possibly they will need it in this geopolitical situation.

Since you think a lot of people. They kept their bitcoins in the hope that the price would rise. This made it possible for the price of bitcoin to rise to an unjustified level. Now speculative capital is leaving and the price is falling to the real level. Maybe now bitcoin will start to acquire the properties of the currency and the purchase of various goods for bitcoins will be a reality.

As funny as this sound, its a call for concern as well with Iceland already pulling out from the tournament and several countries aligning with British position with the expulsion of Russian diplomats from their respective countries, its surely something to consider with all of the other factors working against Russia this time (racism being a key factor). But a whole lot of interest have been put into this with huge funds by multinationals looking to reap a higher returns from all the money they have spent.


I actually don't see this as a surprise at all because a lot of people already know about bitcoin and I don't see officials and individuals who would be under strict security checks going to get bitcoin mainly because of Russia 2018 while those who have some might be required to disclose how much of it they have even before being granted the Visa.

I'm interested how does this from from the legal perspective. As far as I know, russian legal system still doesn't have any regulations towards crypto and government doesn't estimate it as a method of payment

Russia is doing great from meeting  cryptocurrencies perspective. Heard that they are super involved in creating regulations and promote usage of bitcoin&others

I was here that Russia didn't yet legalize bitcoin from this perspective. So I was amazed by this topic now, If Russia will allow football fans and people using their bitcoin for accommodation, it will be a very good thing for a lot of people which have crypto, they can make their life easier there. I hope this news is true and people can spend their bitcoin there without any problems.

I think this suprise is nothing short of amazing, this makes things much easier for a lot of football fans that have a bitcoin credit and being one of those fans i have to say i'm thrilled to found out about this ,this makes me consider going to russia in summer more and encourages me to be  a part of the world cup where i can cheer for my national team.

nice joke lol..but this is a good trial for the russians hotels acceptance of bitcoin as payments for their services..if this one succeeds i can see more same crypto using will follow and besides this is the way why cryptocurrency created,for the use of those who trust the technology and in future the whole world,im waiting for the time that bitcoin can be use for transportation means,how cool that is 😂

World Cup 2018 in Russia is an easy target for the providers of transportation and accommodation in Russia. Surely they will take advantage of this rare moment to increase turnover in a limited time. If true they will accept bitcoin as payment, this is certainly a high risk strategy for them but it can also be a factor that can double their turnover.

Expecting this World Championship to be great and safe =) and love that crypto is involved in it