Cryptocurrency in Hostels

With the sudden jump in the value of Bitcoin towards the end of 2017, cryptocurrency has received a lot of attention from people who were previously not interested.

This thread was started about four years ago when it was hard to find anyone accepting Bitcoin: Hostels Accepting Bitcoin

Are there a lot more hostels accepting bitcoin now than there were four years ago? (Or at least are there more hostels who would be interested in accepting Bitcoin?)

Some of the early adopters have shared some pretty amazing experiences of profiting from cryptocurrency payments.* Juan from Blue Almond Hostel said he has taken about 20 reservations in four years. They were worth about 2000 pesos at the time. Now those same coins are worth about 20,000. Darren at Pacific Tradewinds Hostel took $880 worth of Bitcoin payments in 2017, and now they’re worth about $6000. Dave at Clink Hostels took a crypto payment for a single reservation for two people for two nights. Now that one stay would be worth over $7000.

*Cryptocurrency is intended to be spent like money rather than held as an investment, so people deciding to accept it their hostels shouldn’t expect to get rich from value fluxuations.

Some questions for hostels that do accept cryptocurrency:

• Do you accept multiple cryptocurrencies or just one? If you accept multiple types, how have you chosen which ones to accept?
• When you receive payments, do you hold the cryptocurrency, or do you convert it to Fiat (regular currency) right away?
• How are taxes applied when guests pay with crypto coins in your hostel?
• Do other businesses in your area accept cryptocurrencies as well?
• Can you pay any of your expenses with the crypto coins you receive from guests?

In order to accept payments, a hostel would need to set up a digital “wallet” for the coins. This is frequently done by creating an account with a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Not all of the exchanges work in every area, and not all of them are user friendly. I’m curious which ones people are using and if you would recommend them to other hostels. Some examples:

• Coinbase/GDAX
• Kraken
• Cexio
• Poloniex