Blockchain startup hopes to disturb the short-term rental market

Blockchain startup hopes to disturb the short-term rental market

The Blockchain startup Dtravel, which wants to insert smart contracts into the short-term rent ecosystem, has just edited its first hospitality booking

The concept behind Dtravel is to enable real estate owners to interact directly with guests and tenants without interceptors, as is the case with Web2 booking platforms.

Real estate manager on Dtravel can manage bookings-including price, duration, cleaning and cancellation period, within an Ethereum smart contract that is unique for the advertisement.

As soon as a guest makes the reservation, an agreement is cryptographically signed and a transaction is sent to the advertisement's smart contract. The money is credited to the host after the cancellation period.

The protocol is currently carrying out a beta pilot program, Cynthia Huang, growth manager at Dtravel, told Blockworks. It generates income by a booking fee of 5 %, which is taken over by the host-but this money is currently returned to the hosts via the TRVL utility tokens in the beta test phase.

"The total booking fees are between 15 and 20 %on other platforms," ​​said Huang. "And that is usually divided between the host and the guests."

trvl, which currently only exists on Ethereum, has been stalled since its introduction in November and is currently 96 % below its record high and more than 90 % below its original list price.

dtravel wants to be successful where other blockchain startups have failed

dtravel is not the first protocol to revolutionize the short -term rental industry. Beenest, a blockchain-based open source apartment platform, had a similar vision until she finally had to set her business.

"At that time the technology was simply not the one it was today," said Huang. "She [Beenest] had to be started in Ethereum-Minnet because there were no Layer 2S, but now we have a lot more options."

The transaction costs are now much cheaper and there is a larger appetite for cryptocurrencies on the mainstream market than before, said Huang.

On the short -term rental side, Huang believes that cancellations at the last minute and lack of transparency, after Covid shaked the rental market, led to the fact that hosts had less trust in intermediaries.

"There is a general wish and a general awareness that hosts have to move away from platforms and have more direct control over their real estate offers," said Huang.

This feeling also shares Amir Sadjady, one of the first hosts in Great Britain Properties on with Dtravel. "There were cases in which I was calculated too much by a central platform or not paid for at all, and getting this money back is a real nightmare and even impossible on some occasions," he said.

"The blockchain enables tenants and hosts to carry out directly, safe and transparent transactions without a third party. Hosts can earn more money, tenants can save money, it is a win-win situation."

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The contribution Blockchain Startup Hopes to Disrupt Short-Term Rental Market is not a financial advice.