LockTrip Launches 100,000 Hotels with global booking coverage
We are excited to announce that as a result of the tremendous hard work that our team has put over the last 9 months, all LOC owners can now enjoy one of the most technologically advanced online booking service that cuts the retail pricing of hotels with as much as up to 35% when compared to other cheapest alternatives online. The currently measured average saving is in the 17%-19% range, but deviation for specific hotels can reach up to 35% and even more in some isolated cases.
NB! The deployment of the hotels is a process which will take few more days, and right now we have completed approximately 20,000 hotels out of the whole batch. We will continuously update this post to reflect the number of deployed hotels until we reach the full 100,000. To stay updated, please join our Telegram discussion.
The current release on our Alpha marketplace (https://alpha.lockchain.co/hotels) supports the following features
- Integrated LOC/ETH wallet with state of the art security — The wallet can actually also be used to store and transfer LOC not only for the purpose of the bookings but also for any conventional LOC transfers.
- Full Check-out experience — users can now directly and autonomously place bookings and complete payments with our native LOC token for any hotel in our database.
- Advanced caching mechanism — in order to provide speed and reliability of the rates check, we utilize custom caching that leverages from the combined usage from all users.
- Integrated Dashboard with Booking confirmation via message & Instant booking reference ID. Our users can provide the booking reference ID at the reception for easy check-in.
- 100,000 hotels with worldwide coverage — the core of the service, hotels in almost every city across the globe, at your fingertips and at unmatched prices — available exclusively for LOC owners!
- Intelligent City search with auto-suggestion — a smart search that provides instant auto suggestion of the cities that match the partial entry of our users
- Instant blockchain validation on transactions — meaning our system will continuously monitor the blockchain and will make sure your payment has been processed by the Ethereum network before sending the booking confirmation to the hotel
- Email and instant messaging confirmation with the booking reference ID
Some known issues that we will be fixing as soon as possible
- Improvement on the hotel design template, because right now when images are of lower resolution, they seem sketchy (due to the 100% width current header photo in the design). We will be adjusting our design to be more compatible with lower image resolutions in order not to compromise the user experience.
- Images quality — not all partners provide the hotels in our current inventory with the best possible images. We will be working closely with a specialized content provider to make sure our listings are of highest quality and this will be an ongoing process.
- Current search is narrowed to only 3 months ahead in time. We will be unlocking the search to 12 months ahead with our next update (probably next week)
What are the next scheduled features in our development plan
- The introduction of smart contracts and locking of LOC tokens until the moment of check-out
- Automatic LOC to ETH exchange algorithm that ensures users can execute bookings without the necessity to keep ETH in their wallets (right now you need to keep a minimal amount of ETH in order to pay for the transaction GAS)
Here is a guide on how to use the LOC booking service
Step 1- Perform a search for your next desired location…in the same way you do on any other online travel website..
Step 2 — Wait for the results to show up — Our search function leverages from caching, which means the more users start using it, the quicker the results will show up. If a cache is present (meaning someone else recently performed the same search as you do) you will get the results within 1–2 sec. If no cache is present, the search might take up to 20–30 sec to complete in order for our algorithm to scout for the best rates and availability in real time.
Step 3 — Click on the desired hotel. In this case, we have performed a manual comparison for the first hotel that showed up in the results for London for the duration of 17th-18th Mar 2018 (1 night 2 adults).
LockChain’s price 66 EUR vs competitor price 94 EUR (30% cheaper)
Step 4 — Complete the booking by filling the guest names and making the payment in LOC
Step 5 — Review the details of your booking and confirm the payment.
Step 6- After the payment has been successful, you will be forwarded into the “My trips” section in your dashboard, where you can check the status of the booking. Once the blockchain processes your payment, our system will confirm the booking and will provide you your unique booking reference ID.
Your booking is confirmed with the hotel the moment you receive your Booking Reference No. You can use that Reference ID and provide it during check-in at reception desk.
