Efforts to create decentralized, blockchain-based travel booking platforms have been in development for several years but now two new systems are debuting – one for hotels and the other for short-term rentals.
The creation of these new direct-to-consumer channels, for hotels by Winding Tree and rentals by Dtravel, marks a new stage in the evolution of blockchain for travel distribution – and evidence that what may have initially been viewed as a fad is now gaining much broader acceptance and adoption.
And while these two new offerings are launching with different strategies, both are focused on putting more control and more revenue into the hands of hoteliers and rental hosts.
WIN from Winding Tree
Since going live last Wednesday, Winding Tree says it has had more than 80 rooms nights booked through its new WIN tool at three Amsterdam hotels that are participating in the pilot – DoubleTree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station, Hotel Herbergh and Zoku Amsterdam.
This is the first – and for now only – city where the system is operational, as part of Winding Tree’s new strategy to launch WIN in conjunction with blockchain-industry events. In this case the event is Devconnect, an Ethereum conference that began yesterday and ends on April 25. Future launches are timed to coincide with Ethereum-focused events in the coming months, including ones in Paris, Prague and Bogota.
For this first use case, Winding Tree promoted the opportunity through its social media channels, and in the future says it hopes to partner with conference organizers to share the booking link tied to their events.
