LockChain – an accommodation booking company that operates on the blockchain has recently launched a marketplace where travelers can make bookings without having to pay commission. The platform also allows hosts to list their properties free of charge.
A statement issued by the company’s CEO, Nikola Alexandrov, stated that “for the records, booking.com and airbnb.com charge as much as 20% for all booking on their platforms. Our dream is to provide a commission-free blockchain booking application that hosts will take advantage of. Hosts have the exclusive right to earn their full amount on a business they labored for. Also, travelers that need to make bookings have the exclusive right to pay directly to hotel owners.”
Using the blockchain based booking application; LockChain challenges the duo — airbnb.com and booking.com. The essence of using the blockchain technology is to eliminate excess commission that other industry players charge to link hosts with travelers. The blockchain based online travel booking application uses smart contracts to process all bookings and protects the interest of host and the clients. What this means is that rental host that intends to operate on a short-term basis can list their properties on the blockchain platform and recoup 100% of their investment without paying any commission to a third party.
“Some third-parties charge so much for linking clients to hosts, sometimes above 50%, which we consider rather too high and unfair. This practice is rather unfortunate for the hospitality industry. Middlemen add no value to the travel experience of travelers, yet they charge so much fees.” Mr. Alexandrov, LockChain CEO added.
Why the LockChain is different from others
The CEO further highlighted some general features of the blockchain-based online travel booking application to include;
- Personal wallet can be linked to users’ profile to handle LOC/ETH
- Supports multiple currencies such as USD, GBP, and EUR, among others, through the API connectivity
- The application is HTML5 responsive design. However, there are plans to improve on this feature owing to the fact that some UX flaws are noticeable on the mobile platform.
- The application is integrated with over 600 bookable properties.
How does LockChain online travel booking work?
Mr. Alexandrov also added that the blockchain based online travel booking application works in the following ways;
- Searches homes that are available with corresponding prices and country
- Automatic calculation of fiat-based currency and cryptocurrency through the exchange price from Coinmarketcap.
- Hosts get details of travelers as soon as a request is made
- Once a request is completed, LOC payment instructions are sent to the client’s email.
In November 2017, the company’s LOC token sale of 10,500 ETH was successfully concluded, with over 4,500 participants. LockChain hopes to increase its inventory of hotels to 100,000 by February 2018.