A hotel booking site that accepts bitcoin

[koldtoft]

Hi, my name is Kim Koldtoft, and I work as CTO for a Danish start-up.

We have built a hotel booking website (and later we will add plane tickets and car rentals).
We are backed by strong investors and have great ambitions.  We have all the same hotels as our competitors, at the same prices.

Business model
Our business model is, that we don't spend money on traditional advertisement and marketing, but instead we donate half of our commission to charity, every time a hotel booking is placed. We then use our NGO partnerships to help spread awareness of our movement. Our NGO partners are motivated to help spread awareness, by telling their millions of followers about us, as they will be receiving the donations when they book their hotels.

Our hotel booking website
https://www.goodwings.com/en-us



A quick introduction video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBL1KWtmOkY

How Bitcoin fits in
I am a big advocate for bitcoin, and have been using bitcoin myself, for a little over 3 years. I would love to make Goodwings the first "main-stream" hotel booking engine, that accepts bitcoin. I have done some research, and been unable to find any large scale hotel booking website that accepts crypto currency. Expedia has a Bitcoin Terms & Conditions page, but then when placing a booking, I can't pay with bitcoin.

We are preparing to add various payment methods such as PayPal, Apple Wallet, Android Pay, Google wallet etc. I would love to add Bitcoin to that list, but as I am sure you can imagine, I expect my colleagues to have the typical (and very annoying) "Is bitcoin not illegal and used for drugs and guns?"

I can explain to my colleagues how that it's not true, but they only have to point out that I can't explain it to all our our potential customers, and thus we should not add bitcoin, as it may be perceived poorly.

However, if I could counter that, with a promise (however vague) of a new potential client-base, as there might be lots of good bitcoin people, that would love to help make a positive change in the world, at no extra cost.


If anyone has any input on how accepting bitcoin could help attract additional business, as well as any other input, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much,

- Kim Koldtoft

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[1714831544]

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[Emerge]

Well, Bitcoin really isn't illegal.. It's a form of money and for most people who don't really give much of a crap to analyse it that way:
a way to process payments.. It should even be more beneficial to accept more ways, especially since you could easily do that and eliminate the middle man
and get more money in the process.

Good luck, I'm following your developments!

[razoor]

Do you have open API?

Do you have plane tickets? Are you planning to add it?

[koldtoft]

Well, Bitcoin really isn't illegal.. It's a form of money and for most people who don't really give much of a crap to analyse it that way:
a way to process payments.. It should even be more beneficial to accept more ways, especially since you could easily do that and eliminate the middle man
and get more money in the process.

Good luck, I'm following your developments!

Thank you.

Yes. I know it's not illegal and so does my colleagues. My concern is not with the law, but with the perception of bitcoin. To go one step further. My real concern is with my colleges and our investors perception of peoples perception of bitcoin. I don't think there is any risk here. I don't believe that anyone will decide not to book their hotel, because they see Bitcoin as one of the payment options in the checkout flow.

But I love your argument of being able to donate more to charity, because of lover transaction costs. Much appreciated.

Do you have open API?

Do you have plane tickets? Are you planning to add it?

No we don't have an open API yet. We are currently running off a single provider right now, but once we add more providers, we plan on building an API.

We also don't have plane tickets yet, but plan on adding that. (the problem is that there is no profits in plane tickets.. you have to add fee's and do up-sales and one of our core principles, is to make a clean, respectful and all around awesome booking experience.

[onnz423]

The site looks fantastic, i noticed that the bottom is missing bitcoin logo from the payment options.
Also when i did search it gives title as "søg på hoteller" which i think is a bug.

Good luck to you and your business!

[SFR10]

I would love to add Bitcoin to that list, but as I am sure you can imagine, I expect my colleagues to have the typical (and very annoying) "Is bitcoin not illegal and used for drugs and guns?"

Isn't other payment options (like cash to be exact), also used for those? BTCitcoin is another form of payment and it could be used in many ways, same goes for cash.

If anyone has any input on how accepting bitcoin could help attract additional business, as well as any other input, it would be greatly appreciated.

The whole idea of accepting BTCitcoin is something that many tend to miss (it will always be a plus). Imagine a tourist that stands in front of a hotel that they want to book, without any cash but has enough BTCitcoin on tip of their fingers (figure of speech), they will be able to book a room right away using your website (without the need for worrying if they have enough balance on their credit cards or enough cash of the country their at). That's one scenario and this discussion shouldn't even be here, since accepting BTCitcoin should be considered as a priority (not an issue).

[1BitcoinMillionaire]

Expedia already accepts bitcoin right?

Airbnb I am sure is close behind..

[savioroshan]

In my opinion, you should definitely add bitcoin as one of the payment methods. First of all bitcoin is not illegal. Yeah some are using bitcoins for illegal purpose. But it doesnt mean that whole bitcoin users use bitcoin for illegal purpose. Many people are using fiat currency for illegal purpose , but it doesnt mean all fiat users use it for illegal purpose. For hotel business adding bitcoin as one of the payment ,will  boost your hotel's reputation among visitors and it will increase your customers .

[koldtoft]

Expedia already accepts bitcoin right?

Airbnb I am sure is close behind..

I can't see that they do.. Maybe it's only for some hotels or something. I could find a terms and conditions page for bitcoin payment. But when booking a hotel, I don't see any bitcoin payment option.

[Joel_Jantsen]

We are preparing to add various payment methods such as PayPal, Apple Wallet, Android Pay, Google wallet etc. I would love to add Bitcoin to that list, but as I am sure you can imagine, I expect my colleagues to have the typical (and very annoying) "Is bitcoin not illegal and used for drugs and guns?"

Tell them,before bitcoins came into existence,people still bought guns and drugs off the internet using other forum of money.Bitcoins just made it simple.

I can explain to my colleagues how that it's not true, but they only have to point out that I can't explain it to all our our potential customers, and thus we should not add bitcoin, as it may be perceived poorly.

Let the customers pay using the normal payment methods.Keep Bitcoins as an option.If someone who understands bitcoins as much as you do,they'll be glad to book stuff from your site using bitcoins.And they will definitely pass the word around.

However, if I could counter that, with a promise (however vague) of a new potential client-base, as there might be lots of good bitcoin people, that would love to help make a positive change in the world, at no extra cost.

Exactly! In terms of coding and maintenance,bitcoins needs the least attention.

If anyone has any input on how accepting bitcoin could help attract additional business, as well as any other input, it would be greatly appreciated.

Bitcoin is just another way of accepting payments.It wouldn't grow your customer base as such but keep the potential customers hooked on to the site.A bitcoiner will always book a hotel from your site with his bitcoins if he knows you're the only company doing it.By doing so,you'd not only expand your tech but also give a good name to the bitcoin world.

[basketcoin]

how are you gonna handle cancelations? sounds pretty problematic to me

[Joel_Jantsen]

how are you gonna handle cancelations? sounds pretty problematic to me

Doesn't sound so problematic.They can just send the bitcoins back to the same address where they came from ?Infact,this seems like a much better option than sending the money back to other digital wallets or bank accounts.Bitcoin wins over everything.

[inthelongrun]

Great that is so cool. I am expecting more and more business entities doing this especially in my country and its neighbors.

[DomainMagnate]

Bitcoin transaction is much cheaper and once your customers find it out (if they haven't used bitcoin before) they will surely love your service for they can save a lot.
Sooner or later more business will have to add bitcoin to accept for payment so why not be the first one.

[koldtoft]

how are you gonna handle cancelations? sounds pretty problematic to me

My plan (for now) is to handle any bitcoin transaction as a EUR transaction, exchanging the funds instantly. So you can't be guaranteed to be refunded in bitcoin, but may have to accept a refund in fiat currency in case of a refund. We have to pay the hotel provider right away, in Euro, so holding on to bitcoin, would be a bit of a risk for us, do to it's volatility.

Also about half of hotel bookings are made at non refundable hotels, so for those, this would not be a problem.

[rebel69]

very very nice! i hope your sucessful 

[GameUnits]

Good Luck, that looks very nice and clean 

[dihari]

It's a good way to charity and attract more impression.
By the way, how about tour packages? I built a travel agency in Indonesia, so maybe  I can add or you can list it in your service like competitors do.

[traspy]

Hope booking.com will accept btc in future.

[countryfree]

Sorry, but I don't mix business with charitable activities. I usually spend 100 nights a year in hotels, paying for about half of it (companies I'm working with are paying the other half), and the most important thing is price. The hotel's price (service commission included) shall be as low as possible. I suppose you charge high commissions to give away one half, that's enough to make me want to look elsewhere.