The Canadian Vancouver-based Sandman Hotel Group announced yesterday that they have started to accept Bitcoin payments for room reservations made in their hotels, Coindesk reports. The acceptance of cryptocurrency means that they are the first Canadian hotel group to do so and with 44 hotels across Canada, customers have plenty to choose from.
“Our hotels had a number of enquiries regarding payment through alternative payments including bitcoin. As a customer-focused company with an eye on technology, we decided to incorporate this emerging technology as a payment option,” Salim Kassam, VP of Marketing for Sandman Hotel Group said.
To ensure that the volatility of the Bitcoin would not become an issue for their company, Sandman Hotel Group partnered up with Coinbase to make instantaneous exchanges to Canadian Dollar from Bitcoins. Bookings are easy to do through Bitcoins, as customers simply choose the method under payment methods and follow the procedures shown on the screen. When the payment has gone through, then the reservation is completely confirmed, just like when you book using a credit card.
“We feel that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies may be here to stay. We can tell you without question that more and more of our customers are seeking to pay with this currency, and our job as hoteliers is to be accommodating to the changing needs and requests of our guests,” Kassam added.