Travala.com, an online travel agency is working alongside Expedia to help the travel giant accept Bitcoin payments for the first time in two years.

According to Coin Desk, the “Australia-based booking platform plugged into Expedia Group Partner Services’ Rapid API and its 700,000 listed hotels on Monday.”

The partnership means that Travala clients can pay for Expedia listings in over 30 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin - something Expedia used to do before ceasing its crypto systems in June 2018.

“Their booking flow isn’t built for [crypto] like ours" is, Travala.com CEO Juan Otero told CoinDesk. “It was a bit of a nightmare for them to accept Bitcoin payments.”

He added: “Travala is one of the very few projects in the crypto space that is bridging the gap to traditional multinationals in a huge way… Working with Expedia means we can drive traveller loyalty throughout the [economic] recovery period.”

Meanwhile, Expedia Partner Services' Senior Vice President Alfonso Paredes said in a press statement that Expedia recognises that “payment choice continues to evolve.” 

He went on to note that the alliance will help enable Travala.com scale-up its operations.

This latest news follows last month’s announcement that Travala and TravelbyBit, another prominent online travel firm, are integrating Elrond (RD) on their platforms.

At the time, the CEO of Elrond said: “The recent changes in travel habits put Travala.com & TravelbyBit in a very special position to offer users more convenient payment alternatives. We are very excited about this integration, which offers a great opportunity for the Elrond ecosystem, adding significant utility for the ERD currency.”