Expedia (EXPE), the travel website, is now accepting Bitcoin as a valid form of payment for booking hotel rooms.
Expedia is treating Bitcoin like any other type of electronic payment. The payment method is currently limited to paying for hotels, but the travel website is looking to add the ability to pay for flights and car rentals with it as well, reports CNET.
Expedia’s efforts to incorporate Bitcoin into its payment options helps the virtual currency after it has suffered blows from the Mt. Gox issue. It also offers the travel website the benefit of lower transaction fees than other electronic payments, CNET notes.
“Embracing new technologies is at the heart of our company’s DNA and we have many passionate engineers who work here that are very excited about the potential of bitcoin as both a technology and as a currency, and were eager about the opportunity to work on implementing this relatively new crypto-currency as a type of payment on our site,” Michael Gulmann, vice president of global product at Expedia, told Mashable.
