Launching Today: A New Service To Book Luxury Travel With Cryptocurrency

Vaccine distribution, at least in the U.S., is on the rise dovetailing with increased demand for international travel. Add to that the increase in the number of cryptocurrency millionaires, from 15,000 a year ago to 100,000 today, their desire to pay in those currencies and the need for highly personalized travel arrangement and the result is the new service Concierge launching from the travel site Travala.com today.

“Demand for a luxury travel product within the crypto market has been there for a while, the current bull run has just solidified this, with more crypto millionaires being created almost weekly,” explains Travala.com CEO and co-founder Juan Otero. “This audience can now turn their attention away from price and instead focus on living out experiences they once could only have dreamed of. Crypto users who have made such gains are already booking these experiences with luxury travel agents, but we’re now giving them a way to pay with their favorite currency directly—we expect most will be Bitcoin- and receive the same service and experience they would with a boutique luxury travel agency.”

To use the service, clients need to have spent $50,000 on the main site as approximately 100 have already done or purchase that amount in future credits; the travel manager assigned will then coordinate all details and oversee that client’s travel throughout the year so past experiences and personal preferences will be top of mind when arranging. Since the company founded in 2017 has previously operated in a lower end of the market with an extensive inventory through links with Expedia and other suppliers, they’ve beefed up their roster of travel managers specializing in the luxury end of the market as well as their access to high end properties, private jets, yachts, private islands, helicopters, limousines and other components of luxury travel according to Otero. Although he expects most of their business initially to come from the U.S. and European Union with perhaps some from Japan and Korea, travel managers are spread around the world and speak 14 languages.

Apart from the ability to pay with 40 different cryptocurrencies, there are other potential advantages to using the new service. Special rates and exclusive packages are promised along with the ability to earn rewards including earning a percentage of the hotel cost back in the company’s native utility token AVA which can then be used to reduce the price of future trips or traded for other currencies.

Where are clients preparing to go now? According to Otero, the company is getting private jet requests to capital cities in Europe and the U.S. along with requests for private islands in the Caribbean and Maldives. Like everyone else in the travel industry, they have to navigate the maze of border restrictions and entry requirements; like others, they’ve also seen an intense desire on the part of travelers to get out on the road: in a recent survey conducted by the company 38% said they would travel more than they did pre-pandemic. “As the saying goes,” says Otero, “you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone. Not all of the world is going to recover at the same time. But on the whole, the outlook is very positive. Humans have always loved to travel and we will again.” And now they have another way to pay for it.

Check out the full Forbes article, click here!