http://www.coindesk.com/expedia-exec-bitcoin-payments-have-exceeded-estimates/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.
