Peer-to-peer vacation rental ecosystem
Dtravel is partnering with Polygon, the blockchain technology provider that powers
Web3 experiences for brands such as Starbucks and Reddit.
Polygon will enable Dtravel to turn all
bookings – made through fiat and crypto currencies – into non-fungible tokens
(NFTs). Doing so will enable anyone making a vacation rental booking on Dtravel
to securely transfer or resell those nights in Dtravel’s marketplace, for
example if they are no longer able to use the booking. And vacation rental operators
can earn a commission on those resales, providing an additional source of
revenue.
The update is part of Dtravel Direct, the startup’s
direct booking product suite for vacation rental operators. The NFTs will be
known as Nite Tokens and at the time of booking will transfer from the operator’s
smart contract to the guest’s wallet using the Polygon PoS network.
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“The Polygon ecosystem is a clear leader
when it comes to working with brands and bringing non-Web3 natives on-chain.
Dtravel is very much aligned with this ethos and so building on Polygon PoS was
a natural fit,” said Cynthia Huang, CEO of Dtravel.
“Furthermore, with tokenizing both fiat
and crypto bookings, we need a highly scalable and low-cost solution to support
our high booking transaction volume, and this is another area where the Polygon
ecosystem shines.”
Founded in 2017, Dtravel is focused on
accelerating the adoption of direct bookings for vacation rental operators by
offering a blockchain-based, peer-to-peer infrastructure where operators can
build their own brand.
In a statement, Dtravel said the creation
of Nite Tokens is part of a larger initiative to create “Nite Protocol, the
world’s first open standard booking protocol for the vacation rental industry. … The Nite Protocol will act
as a single API connection that anyone can read and write listing and booking
data to, eliminating the need for duplicative data and expensive API
connections. It aims to effectively dismantle isolated data silos, thus creating
a cohesive system where data is transparent, accurate and accessible to all
industry participants, significantly reducing costs of building within the
industry.”