Expedia Jumps On Bitcoin Bandwagon

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Travel booking site now accepting virtual currency for hotel bookings

In an attempt to cash in on the virtual currency crazy, Expedia has joined the list of companies who have begun accepting Bitcoin.  Expedia is working directly with Coinbase to facilitate the transactions, and will be accepted for hotel bookings.

“While they haven’t officially announced anything aside from hotels, Expedia does plan to eventually expand bitcoin payments to its other lines of business including flights, activities, car rentals, etc. as well,” wrote an Expedia spokesperson, according to Tech Crunch. “The biggest question is really just around when – and the timing all depends on how well it goes with hotels to start.”

Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase stated: “We are pleased to partner with Expedia.com to welcome them into the growing community of forward-thinking companies that have opened their businesses to accept Bitcoin payments.”

Hotels were the obvious first choice for Expedia to explore the bitcoin waters, since that is where they saw the most demand in the space. It was also a logical decision, since Expedia already allowed customers to pay for hotel rooms on the site rather than at the hotel, thus making it easier for the site to accept bitcoin and then pass the cash on to hotel owners.

The plan is to add flights later if the feature becomes popular. Expedia follows Overstock.com and Dish Network as the third major company to accept bitcoin.

Introduced in 2009, Bitcoin was an effort to form a currency that operated independent of government. A volatile currency, in the past three months Bitcoin has exchanged for as little as $395 and as high as $659.

The growing adoption of Bitcoin by the companies is actually a lure for early adopters and folks who might not want to transmit their credit card numbers over the Internet.

 “Bitcoin is a great example of how Expedia is investing early in an array of payment options to give our customers and partners more choice in the ways they interact with us,” said Michael Gulmann, vice president at Expedia. “We’re continually looking at ways consumers want to pay for their travel.”

Founded in 1996, Expedia is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. The company went public in 1999 and spun off TripAdvisor (TRIP) in 2011. Expedia.com allows users to search for transportation and lodging for travel destinations. Other Expedia brands include Hotels.com, Hotwire and trivago.