Switzerland-based Hotel Is Ready to Accept Bitcoin Payments From Next Month

By Kapil Gauhar

A 5-star hotel, The Dolder Grand, which is based in Switzerland, will is set to accept bitcoin payments starting from next month.

This news came into light on Tuesday by The Dolder Grand’s tech partner, Inacta AG, which said that the bitcoin payment option would be made available from May 1.

Once this new payment method goes live and people are free to use it, guests would be able to pay for their accommodation, food and beverages or spa treatments with the use of Bitcoin. Inacta AG’s mobile application ‘Inapay’ will then convert all the bitcoin payments into Swiss franc or euro, no sooner has the payment been completed, according to the statement, which means that the hotel itself won’t handle the cryptocurrency.

André Meier, the director of finance of The Dolder Grand, said in a statement –

“Many of the improvements in our service in recent years were made possible by advances in technology. As we believe Bitcoin is here to stay, it only seems natural to offer more choices in the payment process.”

The bitcoin payment option was featured previously as part of a pilot project with Inacta AG. Hotels around the world have been accepting payments in digital currency since as early as 2014. CheapAir, a US-based travel agency, began its service to allow bitcoin users to book hotel stays with the cryptocurrency back in February 2014.

In the month of July of that year, Sandman Hotel Group, a Canada-based, hotel began to accept bitcoin as a form of payment for room reservations. The most recent case in using bitcoin as a payment option is by Casual Hoteles, which is a Spain-based hotel, that began to accept bitcoin payments on a pilot basis in February 2019.