Sandman Hotel Group starts accepting Bitcoin for reservations

Sandman Signature Hotel, Toronto, Canada.

Vancouver-based Sandman Hotel Group announced this week that it is now accepting Bitcoin as a valid method of payment, becoming the first Canadian hospitality company to accept the virtual currency. Guests can now make reservations at more than 40 hotels of the group across Canada using Bitcoin.

Salim Kassam, vice president of marketing for Sandman, said in a news release:

“Vancouver hosted the TED talk summit earlier this year. This event brought a diverse and tech savvy group of travellers and presenters to the city. Our hotels had a number of enquiries regarding payment through alternative payments including bitcoin. As a customer focused company with an eye on technology, we decided to incorporate this emerging technology as a payment option.”

Kassam added:

“There is a great deal of concern regarding the fluctuation in values of bitcoin. This can be seen to a certain extent in any traditional currency. Bitcoin has seen larger fluctuations; however, we mitigate this by taking an instantaneous exchange value and converting them to Canadian dollars.”

Sandman has partnered with Coinbase for the new initiative. Guests can visit Sandman’s website and choose Bitcoin as the payment option. Guests receive an e-invoice telling them how to send the payment to Sandman’s Bitcoin account, which is hosted by Coinbase. Reservations are confirmed once Sandman receives the payment.

Kassam said:

“We feel that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies may be here to stay. We can tell you without question that more and more of our customers are seeking to pay with this currency, and our job as hoteliers is to be accommodating to the changing needs and requests of our guests.”