Travelers to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague can pay for hotel bookings in bitcoin at any of Holland’s three easyHotels.
The easyHotel Holland website offers a ‘pay in bitcoin’ option upon checkout that generates a BitPay invoice, QR code and wallet address included, to settle the payment.
The easyHotel brand has become increasingly popular in Europe, following the success of UK-based easyGroup’s airline and airport transfer brands, easyJet and easyBus.
While the easyHotels in the Netherlands have embraced bitcoin as a payment option, other members of the hotel family in Europe and the UK have not as yet.
@emilyspaven Please contact our Dutch franchisees as they are working with Bitcoin fnot all of easyhotel. http://t.co/SoZClxuSfn
— EasyHotel.com (@easyhotels) July 29, 2014
CoinDesk was unable to reach the Benelux franchisee for comment.
Travel industry embraces bitcoin
The easyHotels integration highlights the continuing growth of bitcoin into the hotel and travel industries.
Last month online travel giant Expedia also began accepting bitcoin payments, but for hotel reservations only. The company has since announced that its bitcoin profits have exceeded expectations.
Travel agency CheapAir, which initially began accepting bitcoin for flight bookings, began integrating bitcoin payments into its booking system this February, making the service available to 200,000 hotels and Amtrak rail reservations.
Although the easyHotels franchise is not an intermediary site like Expedia or CheapAir, it is a prominent and trusted name in low-cost travel options in the UK and Europe, and the company could see a lot of the same customers paying in bitcoin.
Whether easyJet and the other easyGroup brands will follow suit remains to be seen. The Benelux region easyHotel franchisee acts under the holding company DanZep Hotels.
Growth for bitcoin in the Netherlands
More assuring is the Netherlands’ enthusiasm for incorporating the digital currency into daily life. Despite how cautious its regulatory bodies have been toward the idea of more officially adopting bitcoin, much of the country leads its European counterparts in showing grassroots support for the cryptocurrency.
This spring, the city of The Hague unofficially renamed two streets that run along one canal as ‘Bitcoin Boulevard’, with nine restaurants and an art gallery all opting en masse to accept bitcoin to help launch the rebranding of the boulevard.
The Dutch city of Arnhem also launched its own ‘bitcoin boulevard’ scheme, the second in the country, in May, dubbed Bitcoincity. Bitcoin enthusiasts have expressed interest in pursuing similar endeavors in other Dutch cities like Amsterdam.