Travala Launches AI Hotel Booking With USDC

Singapore-based crypto travel platform Travala has introduced a new protocol designed to allow artificial intelligence agents to search for, book and pay for hotel accommodations using USDC on Coinbase’s Base blockchain.

Called Travala Travel MCP, the system is now available through Claude Desktop, while third-party developers can also integrate the protocol into their own AI-powered travel applications. According to Travala, the solution connects its hotel inventory to AI agents through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open framework that enables AI applications to interact with external services and tools.

Payments are processed through Coinbase’s x402 protocol on Base, enabling gasless USDC transactions, near-instant settlement and transaction fees of approximately $0.01 per booking.

Human approval remains part of the process

Despite the increased automation, the booking experience is not yet fully autonomous. While AI agents can handle travel searches, reservations and payment requests, the final transaction must still be manually approved by the traveler. This makes the system more advanced than traditional AI travel assistants that only provide recommendations, while still keeping users in control of their funds.

The launch follows growing efforts across the crypto industry to enable machine-to-machine commerce through stablecoins and AI-driven payment systems. Recent developments include the rapid growth of x402-enabled wallets on Base, which have surpassed 100 million transactions, alongside new AI payment products introduced by companies such as Fireblocks, MoonPay, Exodus and Oobit.

Travala views the protocol as an important milestone in the evolution of AI-powered commerce. “The launch of the world’s first agentic AI travel protocol marks the death of the checkout button,” Travala CEO Juan Otero said, describing it as the beginning of “a truly autonomous travel economy.”

To maintain security, the protocol uses ERC-7715 session keys, allowing AI agents to initiate payment requests while leaving final signing authority in the traveler’s wallet. Travala also noted that the system can preserve context across searches, bookings and cancellations within a single conversation thread.

Expansion plans beyond hotel reservations

At launch, the protocol provides access to more than 2.2 million hotel listings sourced through Travala’s aggregator partners. These include accommodations from major hospitality brands such as Marriott, Hilton and IHG.

Travala said the long-term goal is to expand the protocol beyond hotel bookings and into other travel services, including flight reservations and additional travel-related products. The company also expects its native loyalty token, AVA, to play a role in future Travel MCP use cases as the ecosystem develops.

Growing competition in crypto travel

Founded in 2017, Travala has established itself as one of the leading crypto-friendly travel platforms, competing with services such as Sleap.io and Alternative Airlines. However, the launch of Travel MCP shifts the focus beyond simply accepting cryptocurrency payments. Instead, the company is positioning itself within the emerging market for AI-powered booking infrastructure, where autonomous agents may eventually manage significant portions of the travel planning and purchasing process.

Travala currently supports payments in more than 100 cryptocurrencies in addition to traditional fiat currencies, and the new protocol represents another step toward integrating blockchain technology, stablecoins and artificial intelligence into everyday consumer services.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/travala-ai-agents-book-hotels-usdc-base

https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/x402-agentic-payments-adoption/