Every week another company tries to make a splash by saying it accepts bitcoin but, most of time, th

Every week another company tries to make a splash by saying it accepts bitcoin but, most of time, the news feels more like a marketing stunt rather than a revolution in consumer payments. Is Expedia any different?
On Wednesday, the company downtown disney hotel map said it will begin letting customers use bitcoins to make reservations at its more than 29,000 hotel partners around the world. In practice, this will mean that some consumers will use the virtual currency to pay Expedia, which will then forward the payment to the hotel in local currency.
As with any other you can pay with bitcoin story, the question is why someone would use the currency to pay Expedia. After all, it s equally or more convenient to pay with a credit card and, in many cases, a traveler will receive a reward from the card that they wouldn t receive if they used bitcoin.
Michael Gulmann, downtown disney hotel map Expedia s VP of Global Product, acknowledged in a phone interview that bitcoin payments are unlikely to take off anytime soon in many big cities where credit downtown disney hotel map cards are the preferred way to book hotels.
But he added that payment preferences vary from country to country and that, for instance, Expedia offers 10 easy payment plans to Brazilians who like to pay in installments. downtown disney hotel map It seems possible, then, that hotel bookings with bitcoin could take off in some unforeseen market.
More broadly, travel is a field where virtual currency payments makes more sense than other consumer categories. Bitcoin, for instance, has the possibility of helping travelers avoid the nasty fees that can come with using Visa or Mastercard in other countries.