Travelcoin dives into a worldwide travel industry for the everyday commute as well as the vacation get away. Say goodbye to paying hidden fees, double booking seats, points you can’t spend, and say hello to real time booking and the lowest fee’s in the market.
It's somewhat unclear what Travelcoin is going to be. Will it cut the middleman? Will it be a loyalty program? How does it avoid double booking?
Major travel outlet sites like Expedia/hotels.com/Trivago/Travelocity etc charge a minimum of 7.5% fee for booking through their website. Travelcoin will offer the lowest fee of any other travel sites while offering a platform that incorporates all forms of travel and many improvements to today’s major travel sites.
First of all Expedia, Hotels.com and trivago are all the same company. One could argue that trivago is public - but Expedia owns a majority stake in it. The 7.5% fee is also somewhat pulled out of thin air. OTA fees typically reach from 10-25% and Trivago isn't even an OTA it's a CPC meta-search platform.
Travelcoin (TRV) is a blockchain protocol that is customized for the travel industry using smart contract technology. The Travelcoin protocol and its Decentralized Applications (DAPPs) targets key travel benefits and allows for instant bookings, spendable rewards points, from anywhere in the world at the lowest fees. The Travelcoin smart contracts ecosystem makes this possible by handling the sale (contract) of the ticket between the ticket holder and the traveler through the Travelcoin ecosystem. Travelcoin (TRV) tokens are required to run the Travelcoin ecosystem through the ether network as ‘fuel’. While initially you can use the TRV tokens as currency on the Ethereum network, however in the long run it is meant to keep the Travelcoin blockchain running.
"by handling the sale (contract) of the ticket between the ticket holder and the traveler" somewhat unclear whether it allows you to buy already issued tickets from ticker holders or actually source tickets from suppliers. The distribution ecosystem in travel is highly complex - would be interesting to hear what you do exactly, how you circumvent GDS, OTA, TAs, create a standard and have suppliers integrate into the platform.
Lowest Fee’s: Travelcoin will offer a 1% fee. That’s significantly lower than any other booking website!
A decentralized service which charges a booking fee? Why even use blockchain?
No double booking: Using Travelcoin’s smart contract system and the speed of the blockchain you’ll never have to worry about double booking again.
How?
Spendable Rewards Anytime: A rewards program with a set dollar figure involved for each point and spendable anytime is long overdue in the travel industry. That’s why Travelcoin will be implementing a rewards program to users that allows them to earn cash back with purchases.
How?
Reseller Services: Ever booked a trip and then tried to cancel? Not the easiest thing to do unless it’s for a medical emergency and they usually charge a hefty fee for a cancellation. At Travelcoin you’ll be able to sell previously booked vacations/tours/trips to another traveler.
How can I sell a hotel booking or airline ticket to another person as both of those bookings are in my name?
As for the rest, all numbers seem to be pulled out of thin air. No actual sources. "In the News" section of your website links to 3 random articles about blockchain which have absolutely nothing to do with you. The services you're looking to provide are absolutely impossible to integrate into today's travel distribution system. Although your whitepaper and site is very unclear about what you're actually looking to book - why do you charge a 1% fee booking? Isn't it meant to be decentralized and free?
Would be happy to read your answers and hear about some of your industry partners.
If you're interested in reading about our distribution solution to travel you can read about us here
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/lif-winding-tree-decentralized-travel-distribution-lufthansa-swiss-1946065 and find out whitepaper here
http://windingtree.com/ you can also see us in TUI's latest video about blockchain in travel on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp16S51uQUs