A temperature check on crypto payments in travel

Last year was a record one for the cryptocurrency market, which surged past $3 trillion in value for a brief period in November 2021. Bitcoin in particular made headlines in February of last year when it hit $1 trillion in market value – igniting debate about whether cryptocurrency would catch on as an accepted form of payment in travel. 

Today, as the market contends with inflation, Bitcoin’s price has fallen to less than $20,000 as of Monday, and experts expect ups and downs to continue.

Travel providers that accept cryptocurrency say they’re experiencing a similar fluctuation - when the price of Bitcoin, or other cryptocurrencies, goes up, so does business – but that’s not uncommon, says CheapAir’s Jeff Klee.

“[Sales made with cryptocurrency] do historically ebb and flow with the price of Bitcoin,” says the co-founder and CEO of the online travel agency, which began accepting Bitcoin in 2013.

“Right now, for instance, it’s definitely come down a few notches, and we would expect it to go back up. It’s not a perfect science by any means, but … if the price of crypto goes up by 10%, our crypto business goes up by about 5%. It tends to be about half, and vice versa: If [crypto price] goes down by 10%, the business goes down by about 5%.”

Latvian airline airBaltic, which claimed to be the first airline to accept Bitcoin in 2014, has noted a similar trend: “Currently, the market is in a correction stage, and it is also visible in our recent booking statistics,” says Artūrs Garais, Web3 project lead at airBaltic. 

“Currently, we see a trend of more people preferring to hold onto their cryptocurrencies rather than spend them to fly.”

Comparatively, in September of last year, the carrier reported that during the third quarter of 2021, the number of bookings paid with cryptocurrencies increased by 44% over the same period in 2020.

“With the current market situation, [crypto] payments are not very popular at the moment,” Garais continues. 

“However, we have been in these cycles before and have recovered. The situation currently is slightly different due to the overall financial situation, but as it is more than currency, we believe that in the long term, there should be a recovery and growth.”

Digital dilemma

Market volatility aside, there are other barriers to widespread adoption of cryptocurrency payments in travel.

For one, in developed countries, “credit card companies have a pretty strong stranglehold on financing and how people pay,” says Klee. “If you’re a consumer, you like the fact that you get points. You like the fact that you can call and cancel a charge.”

Of course, consumers are paying for credit card services, “but nobody realizes how much they’re paying for that,” he says.

“That’s what’s really great about digital currency - it eliminates a lot of those costs. But because people don’t realize they’re paying those costs, they don’t see the value in cryptocurrency.”

For travel providers, allowing customers to pay in cryptocurrency comes with its own set of technological challenges. Many hotels, for example, still struggle to accept credit card payment over the internet, says James Montague, Shiji Group senior director of security and integrations.

“Even PayPal, AmazonPay or other alternative payment methods is a stretch for most. The whole deposit process too, when you check in to hold your card for, say, the mini-bar or damages, would also be quite difficult as there’s no way to do that currently with crypto – you’d pay a deposit, but then by the time the refund comes the value of that crypto could be different. 

“For all these reasons, and many more believe me, in the coming years we don’t see this as being a big thing with the exception of perhaps a very small number of hotels.”

Travel providers likely also need an intermediary platform, such as Coinbase or BitPay, to handle the payment.

“[Travel providers are] adding crypto as they might add any other non‐major currency they don’t currently accept or operate in … and almost certainly they’re immediately converting that cryptocurrency into 'fiat currency' - the normal, real world, non‐digital money we all know and love, in order to avoid any exchange rate volatility risks,” says Matthew Chapman, co-founder and CTO of travel booking technology provider Vibe. 

“If you’re thinking about this consider that all these payment platforms charge suppliers a small fee and of course there are the implementation resources required to do this. There are also tax implications in some jurisdictions, making extra‐accounting record necessary.

“Basically you’ve got to ask yourself, does accepting crypto leave better off net? Right now it probably doesn’t, but that might change in time.”

Leveraging loyalty

That said, with more than a trillion dollars currently invested in crypto, the travel industry shouldn’t sleep on the opportunity, says Alice Ferrari, founder and CEO of airline API technology provider Kyte.

“As crypto is a very easy asset to liquidate many investors are tempted to use their crypto funds to pay for big-ticket, one-off items like a holiday. So why not make that purchasing decision easier for them by allowing them to pay directly in crypto?

“Nonetheless right now this isn’t a hugely demanded payment method clearly. But that is potentially going to change as stable coins - crypto coins whose value is pegged to real-world currencies like the dollar or euro - become ever more popular. Perhaps now could be the moment to get ahead of the trend?”

Cryptocurrency, and the blockchain technology behind it, can also help travel brands inspire customer loyalty. AirBaltic’s Garais says that for loyalty, the biggest advantage blockchain gives is the transferable token.

“It allows us to create a loyalty that can be transferred to someone else, as current loyalty systems offer no option to transfer it to your friend or family or someone in the secondary market. Ideally, it creates an asset for every customer who holds it,” Garais says.

“There is also an option to create personalized loyalty programs with NFT technology … to provide benefits like window seat or a free meal during flight. Of course, this would also be possible with current systems, however, would take hours of manual work.”

Ferrari also espouses the benefits of blockchain technology on the travel experience. “Regardless of your views, there is one other important point to be considered about crypto and travel: The blockchain technology behind it is soon going to be used to power all kinds of travel experiences, in particular loyalty and points programs as they become - perhaps totally unbeknownst to the user - NFTs based on blockchain. 

“We’re just at the beginning of things really, so many massive opportunities we can’t even imagine for travel are likely to come about indirectly as a result of crypto.”