Bitcoin Forum

Washington-based online travel booking giant Expedia announced it would begin accepting bitcoin for payments on 11th June, and in a new interview the company confirms that its first foray into the ecosystem is already a success.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Expedia’s executive vice president of global product Michael Gulmann declined to release firm figures regarding the total bitcoin sales the company has seen so far, but reported that they have exceeded estimates.

Gulmann told CoinDesk:

“We did some estimates based on the size of Overstock and the size of Expedia, and came up with our own estimates of what we could expect, and we’re meeting and exceeding those.”

Further, Gulmann moved to dismiss suggestions that Expedia may simply be testing bitcoin as a payment method, and that it doesn’t yet have plans to integrate the payment more broadly. He stated that hotel bookings were rather a logical starting point for adding bitcoin due to the fact that it accounts for the lion’s share of the company’s sales, adding:

“Certainly, there are people who want to book airline tickets with Expedia, but it made sense from a technology standpoint, from a business standpoint and from a customer demand standpoint to jump out with hotels first.”

Gulmann went on to suggest that, should it have been considering bitcoin payments as a trial, it has already received the feedback it sought.

The announcement that Expedia would accept bitcoin through Coinbase added yet another billion-dollar company to the ecosystem, providing new evidence to support Coinbase’s prior assertions that as many as 10 companies of that size could begin accepting bitcoin in 2014.

Global hotel expansion

To date, Expedia only offers bitcoin payments for hotel bookings to US customers, and only as part of its ‘Pay Now‘ payment option for which it accepts payment on behalf of the customer. This allows the company to offer bitcoin payment services for all 45,000 of its hotels, “in one fell swoop”.

But Gulmann suggested that the company is likely to extend the payment method to its other offerings, including flight bookings, car rentals and more.

He implied the addition of the company’s bitcoin payment option for all global hotel services could be the next step in expanding the service, stating:

“I think we’ve already seen what we’ve needed to see, now it just comes down to timing. The primary [goal] would be to get it up globally for our hotels.”

This would require the addition of the payment option for hotel bookings on all or a greater number of the company’s global sites.

Expedia also offers a ‘Pay Later’ option for hotel bookings, in which customers can select to reserve lodging with its services, but pay proprietors directly on arrival. In this case, Expedia does not facilitate payment, so its bitcoin services are not applicable.

I still would like to see a discount for booking in bit coin. It costs them less in processing fees and if they pass the savings on to consumers it would incentivize the use of bit coin.

bitcoin is not ready for consumer use. when bitcoin can be bought at any 7-11 that had a bitcoin ATM or some other way that didnt require 3 forms of ID just to buy bitcoins.. then merchant discounts should happen. but for now we need to make sure merchants take advantage get make profits so that they keep running bitcoin payments.. soon enough they will start offering discounts.. but that is when they start hoarding coins instead of instant selling them through bitpay.

we are still in early adoptor stage.. so dont try pushing and breaking natural growth. the infrastructure is not quite there for natural daily usage  and acceptance.

it takes stages to get to full consumer use, expedia for instance has to start talking to their hotels and staff to start wanting to accept bitcoins as at the moment expedia is just cashing out and paying them fiat. costing them in exchange fee's etc. once they get to see a bigger financial benefit through employee salary savings and supplier/hotel cost savings. then things can start moving in the direction you want.. just give them time to adjust and accept it as the norm first.

we need to get straight forward systems in place which are "granny-proof". and get them spread out to as many locations as possible.

so pace yourself, be patient, it will happen, exactly how you want it.. just not today.

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That second layer penetration will be huge. For me the wait is not a bad thing. It gives me time to accumulate more before it gets priced out of reach.

I still would like to see a discount for booking in bit coin. It costs them less in processing fees and if they pass the savings on to consumers it would incentivize the use of bit coin.

I still would like to see a discount for booking in bit coin. It costs them less in processing fees and if they pass the savings on to consumers it would incentivize the use of bit coin.

I still would like to see a discount for booking in bit coin. It costs them less in processing fees and if they pass the savings on to consumers it would incentivize the use of bit coin.

bitcoin is not ready for consumer use. when bitcoin can be bought at any 7-11 that had a bitcoin ATM or some other way that didnt require 3 forms of ID just to buy bitcoins.. then merchant discounts should happen. but for now we need to make sure merchants take advantage get make profits so that they keep running bitcoin payments.. soon enough they will start offering discounts.. but that is when they start hoarding coins instead of instant selling them through bitpay.

we are still in early adoptor stage.. so dont try pushing and breaking natural growth. the infrastructure is not quite there for natural daily usage  and acceptance.

it takes stages to get to full consumer use, expedia for instance has to start talking to their hotels and staff to start wanting to accept bitcoins as at the moment expedia is just cashing out and paying them fiat. costing them in exchange fee's etc. once they get to see a bigger financial benefit through employee salary savings and supplier/hotel cost savings. then things can start moving in the direction you want.. just give them time to adjust and accept it as the norm first.

we need to get straight forward systems in place which are "granny-proof". and get them spread out to as many locations as possible.

so pace yourself, be patient, it will happen, exactly how you want it.. just not today.