Riding on the recent cryptocurrency hype, a luxury American hotel chain is now allowing patrons to make payments using digital currency, including Bitcoin and Dogecoin.
The pioneering hotel group is Kessler Collection, which owns hotels across Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. According to an announcement it made on Tuesday, various cryptocurrencies will now be accepted as payment, including the highly-popular Bitcoin and Ether, stablecoins USDC, Binance USD, Gemini Dollar, and PAX, and even the infamous meme-token Dogecoin.
“This move will make it easier for guests traveling globally, both in time saved from going to a local currency exchange and in money saved with a lower exchange rate,” said the groups’ chief financial officer Fravy Collazo. “This is one of the most innovative concepts in the hospitality industry right now,” added Richard Kessler, chairman and CEO of Kessler Collection. “I believe cryptocurrency is only going to gain acceptance, and partnering with BitPay allows us to offer more choices in the payment process.”
Despite the new option, analysts remain pessimistic about the likelihood of crypto owners actually spending their digital currency over fiat currencies, largely due to the industry’s inclination to hold for long-term gains. “If you are optimizing for growing your investments, a better question is ‘why would you go on vacation if you can invest those funds in crypto?’,” Kraken’s head of business operations and strategy Thomas Perfumo remarked. “An investor could otherwise simply purchase and transfer additional crypto without reducing their holdings, all within minutes or hours.”
In other crypto-related news, Beeple’s latest NFT sold for an incredible, record-breaking $69 million USD.
