Dtravel Completes First Smart-Contract Vacation Rental Booking

Web3 vacation and short-term rental platform Dtravel has completed its first successful smart-contract booking, the company said Thursday.

A customer booked a $2,000 USDC stay at a property in London through a property owner who listed his home through the BNB chain-based company’s V2 of its pilot program, which has been in beta for the past month.

Dtravel’s first smart contract-based booking comes after a monthslong effort to make the site more user-friendly while still upholding principles of Web3. Binance-backed travel booking site Travala.com first announced the release of the Dtravel platform in June 2021 and launched the initial version in November 2021.

Dtravel head of growth Cynthia Huang told CoinDesk that early users voiced a desire for greater autonomy in the marketplace the company had originally built.

They took the early months of 2022 to listen to user feedback and research its approach to empower hosts to have ownership over their bookings, transactions and payment options.

“The huge value proposition that we have with this product specifically is that hosts truly own their own smart contract and they own the payment flow of that, too,” said Huang.

With the site’s implementation of direct bookings, users can book stays directly from the owner on the BNB chain. The smart contract is run between the renter and the host, eliminating all third-party platforms and giving the hosts full autonomy over the terms of their hospitality.

Users can pay their hosts for their stays in stablecoins such as UDSC, USDT and BUSD. Huang said the company is exploring in the coming months the possibility of being multichain, as well as incorporating additional cryptocurrency payment options.

Dtravel is also working on bolstering its community through its DAO. With its native token TRVL, homeowners and renters can vote on proposals such as building new marketing features or host tools for the platform.

It’s also looking to onboard users newer to the crypto space, rather than solely experienced Travala users. Huang said Dtravel plans to incorporate more login options and wallet integrations for those joining the platform from Web2, as well as give TRVL tokens to guests to encourage governance participation to get acquainted with the DAO.

Huang told CoinDesk that Dtravel will be available to the public in the next two months.

Read more: Decentralized Travel Site Dtravel Says It Has 250K Homes Available to Book Using Crypto