When asked to describe their ideal booking experience, most hosts and property managers will likely mention low commissions, complete control over terms and policies, and unrestricted guest communications.
The primary solution to realizing these benefits is implementing direct bookings, which have been making a tremendous comeback over the last few years. However, there are several challenges that stand in the way of successfully accepting direct bookings in today’s hospitality landscape, especially as the primary booking mode.
In this article, we’ll cover what direct bookings are, why they’re on the rise, the challenges associated with them, and how direct bookings fit with Dtravel.
As a native web3 tool, designing Dtravel involves unique challenges in comparison to existing web2 short-term rental platforms.
The web2 model enables companies to centralize their processes and data, which is efficient at the cost of relinquishing user control and ownership. Web3’s additional complexity stems from the decentralization aspect, which requires balancing familiarity with innovation to ensure the end product is user-friendly.
In this article, we’ll discuss the basic web2 and web3 design principles, what web3 design is solving and how Dtravel is implementing web3 design.
Last month, we published an article on how we’ll leverage property management system (PMS) integrations for Dtravel v2. We’re delighted to announce our first PMS partner in Hostaway, the leading all-in-one vacation rental software solution for growing property managers.
Currently, around 2,000 property managers with 40,000 properties use Hostaway. Once Dtravel v2 launches in May, these property managers will be able to seamlessly activate Dtravel from within their Hostaway account, alongside their existing listings with other short-term rental booking platforms.
In this article, we’ll discuss why Dtravel hosts need to use a PMS, where a PMS fits into decentralization and why we’ve chosen to partner with Hostaway.
Why Do Hosts Need To Use a PMS for Dtravel?
We’re excited to announce that James Soulodre has joined as a Marketing Lead, to further accelerate Dtravel’s mission in strengthening brand equity, driving awareness and community engagement.
With a background in marketing and branding, James will focus on telling Dtravel’s story through compelling campaigns and will support product launches, updates, and partnerships. In addition, James will be responsible for nourishing Dtravel’s vibrant community of hosts, guests, and DAO members – the cornerstone to the Dtravel ecosystem.
James’ marketing background spans a diverse range of roles across multiple different industries including tech, e-commerce, and consumer products. With experience in planning and executing global go-to-market strategies, James brings with him a breadth of knowledge throughout various functions such as content creation, content production, public relations, community management, as well as both paid and organic digital marketing. In past roles, James has managed partnership marketing campaigns for globally recognized brands like adidas, ASICS and Polartec.
A brand builder at heart, James has launched multiple projects in the tech and consumer products space including a grass-fed cow share website and a plant-based supplement company. James’ cryptocurrency journey began over five years ago and has since spent much of his time researching the latest trends, token marketing strategies, and thinking about how to grow decentralized brands. Most recently, James has been involved in several NFT communities, volunteering his time as a moderator, and supporting projects he believes in.
One of the most unique aspects of Dtravel is our decentralized payments infrastructure. While other vacation rental booking platforms manage and control payments centrally, Dtravel never has access to payments at any point in the booking process.
Instead, we provide the tools to facilitate peer-to-peer payments between hosts and guests on the blockchain, meaning members rely on code rather than a corporation.
Powering this automated payment flow are smart contracts on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC), which are automated by following a simple logic: “if X occurs, then Y happens.” The contract is executed once a call is made to the contract to signal a booking being requested.
In this article, we’ll detail our smart contract design for listings and bookings, share how we arrived at this design, and discuss the benefits of using on-chain payments in conjunction with smart contracts.
Last month, we introduced the Host Beta Program, which serves to shape Dtravel v2 directly with the help of hosts. By gaining more details into the major problems vacation rental hosts face today, we can create a better user experience early in the product life cycle.
We’re extremely grateful to the first group of Batch1 hosts for dedicating their valuable time and providing insightful opinions, suggestions and talking points. These learnings will be instrumental in developing a web3 future for the vacation rental industry and will continue to be central to our strategy as we invite more hosts to participate in Batch2.
In this article, we’ll introduce two of our wonderful Batch1 hosts, provide key insights from what we’ve learned and summarize how this feedback will be implemented into Dtravel v2.
We’re excited to share an update with our community regarding our product roadmap for the rest of the year and why we believe the best days for Dtravel are ahead of us. In 2022, success for Dtravel looks like the following:
- Onboard more high-quality short-term rental listings
- Power more on-chain bookings
- Drive the utility of TRVL
#1 – Onboard more high-quality short-term rental listings
Kickstarting a travel revolution by enabling hosts and guests to transact directly and at a fraction of the cost is no small feat. For Dtravel, this means validating problems to be solved for high-quality suppliers first, then tackling the demand side.
Dtravel v2, our web3 ecosystem that combines the freedom of direct booking sites and the simplicity of online travel agencies, will utilize property management system (PMS) integrations to provide a holistic, time-saving management experience.
By leveraging existing technologies in a novel manner that prioritizes the best interests of the community, Dtravel is creating an ecosystem that emphasizes ownership, efficiency and transparency.
This article will explore what a PMS is, what benefits it offers, how it will be incorporated into Dtravel and how it fits in the roadmap.
Dtravel was conceived by a core group who came together with a shared vision and developed the whitepaper, initial tokenomics and a v1 product. As more contributors and community members became involved in the project, it became clear that the organizational structure and operating system at the time wasn’t the best way for Dtravel to scale in a distributed way while staying lean.
This article discusses the problems with the original structure, how the structure has evolved to align with a web3 ethos and what it means for the community.
Recognizing the Need for Change
Despite being focused on building a web3 native ecosystem, it was challenging not to fall into a web2 operating model due to the familiarity and comfort with traditional org structures.
In our recent Dtravel v2 — Product Direction Part 1 article, we touched on the Host Beta Program, which involves the team working together with hosts to shape Dtravel v2 — a new web3 ecosystem that blends the freedom of direct booking sites and the simplicity of online travel agencies.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how the Host Beta Program will operate, why we believe it’s important and our learnings from the initiative to date.
“Batch1” Hosts
The first hosts in the Host Beta Program are part of “Batch1”, a handpicked group of engaged hosts who provide feedback on Dtravel v2 prototypes and designs as well as the overall experience to improve the success of the Host Beta Program in future iterations.
Part 2: Building Better Travel Experiences
Traveling should be an efficient, inclusive and rewarding experience. To make this a reality, Dtravel is building a decentralized web3 ecosystem that enables travelers to confidently book stays directly with property hosts.
In Part 1: Empowering Hospitality Businesses, we discussed the Dtravel v2 approach — which combines the freedom of direct booking sites with the simplicity of online travel agencies — and how it benefits hosts.
In the second part of this series, we turn our focus to detailing how this approach will benefit travelers (or “guests”) and TRVL token holders who book with hosts using Dtravel and/or contribute to the growth of the ecosystem.
Part 1: Empowering Hospitality Businesses
Knowing where you’re heading is the cornerstone of any well-planned journey, and it’s no different for Dtravel. To share what’s on the horizon with our community, we’ve put together a summary of our strategy for the first half of 2022, including hot-off-the-press info on Dtravel v2.
Read on to find out more about Dtravel v2, why we believe it’s a crucial step for home sharing and what it means for hosts.
In our last post, we shared a commitment to being more transparent with the Dtravel community. That commitment continues today with a post dedicated to the research we conducted in 2021 that informed our 2022 strategy. In this post, we’ll walk through why research is critical to Dtravel’s development process, the methodologies we used to understand who Dtravel community members are, and how these learnings shaped the vision for a product that will come to life in the next few months.
Why research?
At Dtravel, product development is approached through a human-centered lens. To develop useful products for the Dtravel community, it's critical to understand who the community is, what they believe in, and what problems they’re currently facing.
Last year, Dtravel set out to build new tools for travelers and hospitality entrepreneurs and establish a new crypto-travel economy.
It’s been a few months since we launched Dtravel and the TRVL token. In that time, our team worked hard to improve our existing product and develop a strategy for the future. We also had the opportunity to gather feedback from the community and reflect on our path so far.
We want to thank each community member for your continued patience and support over these past months. Many of you have been waiting anxiously to learn more about the plans for Dtravel in 2022. Today, we feel privileged to share a glimpse into what we’ve learned, what’s next, and the investments we’ll make over the coming months to grow and improve the community.