Hotel bookings might get a little bit cheaper — and easier — with crypto involved.
At CES 2019 blockchain startup BTU Protocol is launching “BTU Hotel”, a 0% commission hotel booking service that reward its users with crypto. BlockTelegraph caught up with CEO Herve Hababou to find out how the company is taking a shot at Priceline and Booking.com along with others in the blockchain space.
- the BTU team has its own interesting tech background. Share all of that.
The BTU Protocol team gathers a lot of experience both in the blockchain and the software industry.
Vidal Chriqui discovered Bitcoin in 2012 and was immediately fascinated by what he envisioned as a masterpiece of computer architecture. He launched Blockchain Révolution, the first free french speaking video series about bitcoin and blockchain. Vidal has also been working as a technical advisor to successful token sales contributing to smart contracts writing or review, whitepaper writing and tokenomics design. He is the inventor of Ethereum EIP-808.
Hervé Hababou graduated from ENS IIE and London Business School. He started his career designing software and delivering multi-million euros software consulting projects in the US and the UK. As an entrepreneur, he founded the leading SAP software partner sales company and brokered software deals with the largest french companies. As a seed Investor he financed a dozen SaaS and blockchain start-ups.
Bernard Molle spent more than 30 years in tourism technology industry. He helped the digital transformations of the sector which went in a few years from booking in travel agencies to on-line booking and to fully digital. As sales manager at Amadeus and Sabre Travel Network, he managed the biggest consortia of French travel agencies.
- Why focus on hotel bookings and not other (car rental or flight)?
BTU Protocol is the first peer-to-peer booking protocol. It enables direct business (0% commission) between consumers & any kind of service providers.
We started our first massive deployment in the hotel industry because this sector experiments the highest commissions on transactions. That is why hotels are early adopters of our technology and its benefits.
During CES 2019, we are launching BTU Hotel, a booking hotel service with 0% commission. In addition, customers are earning BTU tokens as a reward for every successful booking. Over 2 million hotels and properties all around the world are available at negotiated prices..
- With which big chains have you made deals?
Big and small chains benefits from a better margin with customers coming via BTU Protocol. Currently we have access to all big chains inventory through their software company without signing specific contracts or partnerships.
- How is BTU Protocol different from its competitors in the blockchain space?
Other companies are willing to break the monopoly of online booking platforms just like us. BTU Protocol’s positioning remains unique today. We position ourselves as a protocol that facilitates the emergence of a new ecosystem. Many applications and companies will therefore be able to use our protocol. We have designed a generic protocol suited to all types of markets and industries.
BTU applications are designed to be used by the general public, usage is not restricted to token and cryptocurrencies holders.Finally, we are a live protocol deployed at large scale (2 million hotels).
- Are you able to offer prices lower than priceline.com, booking.com and other legacy online booking platforms? How so?
Our business model with 0% commission allows us to be very competitive. Of course, sometimes we may have the same price as the others, but we still reward customers with 5% of the amount of their booking. So the customer is always winning.
