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Hotel owners have created a secondary market for hotel rooms using nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The system allows hotel guests who have paid for their rooms to sell the rights to their rooms on the open market if they don’t want to use them. The system protects the hotel from cancellations and gives more people access to rooms that can be discounted on the secondary market. Peter Grant reports for The Wall Street Journal:
Some resort owners think they have found a way to avoid getting stuck with excess inventory when guests cancel at the last minute.
It involves converting room nights for sale into nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, that can be bought or sold by hotel guests, similar to the StubHub market for concert and sporting event tickets.
Owners say this ensures they get paid for the rooms because guests would sell their reservation in the market if they decide not to go, and appeal to the crypto-enthusiastic traveler.
“We can reach another consumer that maybe isn’t booking through traditional means,” said Jason Kycek, senior vice president with Casa de Campo Resort & Villas, a Dominican Republic resort, who is planning to soon begin booking rooms with NFTs.
Casa de Campo has signed with the startup Pinktada, which recently launched a booking system that includes hotels in the Caribbean, Mexico, San Francisco and Hawaii.
Hotel guests can reserve rooms at those properties by buying NFTs through Pinktada. By using this system, guests can book a room at a discount to what the hotel would charge for a refundable reservation.
The sale is final from the point of view of hotel owners, so their revenue is guaranteed whether or not the room is used. If travelers change plans, they can use the tokens for other Pinktada hotels or sell them to another traveler in the Pinktada network.
Pinktada (the name is a reference to a type of pearl oyster) promises to be the buyer-of-last resort if another traveler doesn’t buy it.
“You give hotel owners certainty of income, but give travelers the flexibility if their plans change to sell or swap tokens,” said Mark Gordon, Pinktada’s co-founder and chief hospitality officer.
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