Cape Town-based luxury lifestyle and villa rental and management company, In Residence by Pieter Brundyn, has partnered with the recently-launched decentralised cryptocurrency platform for the home-sharing economy, Dtravel.
The two companies have partnered to reconstitute the luxury vacation into a more accessible, affordable and integrated experience.
The new venture will offer consumers a new way to book the most exclusive In Residence experiences while leveraging what it claims are “the lowest fees in the industry” – a result of DTravel’s deployment of blockchain technology to ease the payment and booking process by bypassing the usual fees associated with the latter. A selection of In Residence’s luxury homes will be available for booking from this autumn using Dtravel tokens, known as TRVL.
Introduced in June with the support of Binance-backed Travala.com, DTravel is expected to launch property bookings in the autumn, having amassed over 200,000 properties in more than 2000 cities since its launch.
The hundreds of thousands of vacation rentals are powered by its native token [TRVL], which is held by all hosts. TRVL can be used for booking stays, qualifying for rewards and loyalty programmes, participating in platform governance, and more.
Buying TRVL tokens is designed to transform the individual crypto-investor, traveller or house-renter into a co-owner of a broader travel ecosystem that merges the lowest prices, the highest-end experiences, and the most seamless, individualised control over the booking process.
With the Decentralised Autonomous Organisation [DAO], a digital cooperative allowing each individual to become a decision-maker and possess an equally vested interest in the integrated but decentralised virtual economy, hosts and guests will be able to interact within a space that maximises the ownership and preferences of both within the booking experience.
In Residence, meanwhile, will ensure that this democratised, cheaper, more integrated booking experience yields the best possible luxury experiences on offer in the travel industry. While the company’s discreet, highly personalised booking system and concierge service have already given its clients more control over the booking experience, the partnership with DTravel in the current global climate is set to take this approach to a new level.
Pieter Brundyn, CEO at In Residence, said: “With travel starting to rebound and a record level of interest in blockchain technologies like cryptocurrencies, DTravel gives eager hosts what has been missing to date: control and ownership over the booking experience.”
