As Bitcoin surges, will cryptocurrency become an accepted form of payment in travel?
The wild ride of Bitcoin has dominated headlines in recent weeks. The cryptocurrency's value stands around $50,000 for one Bitcoin this week - compared to about $10,000 a year ago and around $400 five years ago. Bitcoin is just one of thousands of cryptocurrencies in existence - and many of those are also surging - but it has by far the highest value.
Since Bitcoin first appeared in 2009 as the original decentralized digital currency, i.e., not controlled by banks or a government, a handful of travel companies have come to accept it as a form of payment.
One of the first was online travel agency CheapAir, which began accepting Bitcoin in 2013. Originally the company used a third-party processor to convert the Bitcoins into dollars which could then be paid to airlines and hotels - since virtually all suppliers still require payment in fiat currency. Eventually, the OTA built its own processing technology for Bitcoin to manage the exchange itself.
CheapAir co-founder and CEO Jeff Klee says that the need to exchange the cryptocurrency is one of the roadblocks to widespread adoption in the travel industry.
"It would be much easier for everyone if the suppliers would accept crypto. It's a bit of an ordeal when the supplier doesn't, so we have to exchange into dollars and pay the supplier separately," he says.
"That's what makes it unattractive to a lot of travel intermediaries. There's a lot of infrastructure you need, training you need for your frontline agents to support it when customers call. We decided to commit to it, so we built that infrastructure and it's a big part of our training."
