January 2024 Update
2024 has already been off to a strong start with Borderless Capital coming in as a strategic partner, v3 booking contracts launched on Polygon PoS, Smart Wallets added to the Dtravel ecosystem and so much more.
The first month of 2024 has already been off to a strong start with Dtravel releasing a number of major upgrades and features. The industry is taking notice with backing from a prominent web3 venture capital fund, multiple media appearances, an award nomination and plenty of public appearances. We’re extremely excited for the next couple of months as we’ll be elevating distribution by launching our first search product to help travelers discover vacation rentals they can book directly with owners and operators anywhere in the world. Let's dive into everything you need to know from the last month!
Recent Updates in January
- Borderless Capital Invests in TRVL
- Sensei AI
- Nite Protocol
- V3 Booking Contract Upgrade: Polygon PoS
- Smart Wallets
- Stripe Integration Upgrade
- Media
Borderless Capital Invests in TRVL
We're extremely excited to share that Dtravel has received a significant endorsement from Borderless Capital through a strategic investment in TRVL by way of their DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) fund. This collaboration not only brings financial backing, but also unlocks relationships and mentorship opportunities which will support Dtravel in becoming a leading DePIN service network provider.
The infusion of funds from Borderless Capital is set to catalyze a new stage of expansion, where Dtravel expects to attract hundreds of thousands of service providers, vacation rental operators, travelers, and TRVL token supporters to its platform. Equipped with a team of experienced leaders, Borderless Capital has already started to contribute insights on Dtravel’s tokenomics, aiming to secure the platform's enduring viability and to use TRVL tokens to drive exponential growth within the network, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of success.
Learn more about the strategic partnership with Borderless Capital here.
Product Updates: Sensei AI
Sensei AI
Progress on Sensei AI development continues with much of the last month focused on updating the LLM (large language model). The original prototype worked as a proof-of-concept, but improving the user experience ahead of an Alpha release is a critical next step in the roadmap.
As a refresher, Sensei AI, is the underlying technology being built by Dtravel to save travelers time and money planning a trip. Using Sensei AI, travelers can easily search for vacation rentals that can be booked directly with owners and operators anywhere in the world. In addition, travelers will be able to leverage artificial intelligence to learn more about where they should stay given their personal preferences.
Dtravel is preparing for an Alpha release, which will involve testing and debugging by key stakeholders. Once completed, Dtravel will open up Sensei to select community-members in a closed-Beta environment before moving toward a broader public release.
Product Updates: Dtravel Direct
Smart Wallets
Over the last year, we’ve seen accelerated growth in new Dtravel Direct operators and a rising demand for crypto payments. As a result of learning directly from Dtravel's community of property managers, we've worked to strip away all of the complexities and make it incredibly easy to create and manage a wallet.
In January, Dtravel announced the launch of Dtravel Smart Wallets, an upgrade to the Dtravel ecosystem aimed at easing adoption of crypto payments for non native web3 operators. Vacation rental operators interested in gaining exposure to crypto can now create a Dtravel Smart Wallet using just their email address.
Dtravel Smart Wallets facilitate the easy creation and management of non-custodial cryptocurrency wallets, reducing the complexities associated with blockchain for non-crypto natives. For operators new to crypto, Dtravel Smart Wallets enable simplified network switching and enhanced security, eliminating the need to manage private keys. In addition, Dtravel Smart Wallets will allow for customizable payment options across various blockchain networks, crypto on-and-off ramp solutions, as well as the ability to easily collect and spend Dtravel ecosystem rewards.
Operators can gain exposure to crypto payments, boost their conversion rate and collect TRVL rewards for every direct booking.
Read our announcement on the launch of Dtravel Smart Wallets.
Stripe Integration Upgrade
This past month, we made some important updates to our Stripe integration, which will enable multiple Dtravel user accounts and other security enhancements. As a result of the upgrade, it is necessary for all existing Dtravel Direct users to reconnect their Stripe accounts in order to ensure a seamless booking experience.
Dtravel Direct users will have until Friday, February 16, 2024 at 5:00pm PST to reconnect their accounts.
v3 Booking Contracts Upgrade with Polygon Proof of Stake (PoS) Network
Dtravel went through a major upgrade in January with a move to the long awaited v3 Booking Contracts, a smart contract upgrade that now brings booking value on-chain to Polygon PoS.
As a result of the upgrade, Dtravel is now tokenizing all bookings into Nite tokens, an ERC-721 NFT compatible standard, representing the right to stay in a particular property for a specified period of time.
The decision to build on the EVM-compatible Polygon PoS was made because of its fast transactions and minimal gas fees. With Nite tokens, Dtravel is now turning vacation rental booking value into a tokenized RWA (real-world asset) on Polygon PoS.
Nite tokens made possible by Dtravel’s v3 booking contract upgrade introduces an innovative approach and a new level of versatility to vacation rental reservations. For guests, it unlocks the potential to resell or pass on their bookings via a peer-to-peer marketplace if they're unable to honor a reservation, offering flexibility that surpasses traditional booking methods. In doing so, property managers would benefit from the assurance of cash flow and the prospect of generating additional income through the resale of Nite Tokens. Moreover, these tokens pave the way for groundbreaking DeFi markets and business models, such as secured arbitrage opportunities.
Nite Tokens are the cornerstone of Dtravel's plan to spearhead the development of the Nite Protocol, the inaugural open-standard booking protocol designed specifically for the vacation rental sector. The Nite Protocol aims to address the sector's current inefficiencies and fragmentation by offering a unified API for listing and booking information, eliminating redundant data and expensive API integrations. This forward-thinking initiative promises to transform the industry, providing a cohesive framework where information is transparent, precise, and readily available, thus significantly reducing the hurdles to innovation in the field.
Read our latest press release covering Dtravel’s v3 booking contract and Nite Tokens and Polygon PoS here.
Product Updates: Nite Protocol
Nite Protocol
As a reminder, the Nite Protocol enables a single source of truth for booking and listing data across the industry. It will solve many issues related to data fragmentation and costly, inefficient infrastructure. It consists of two parts:
1. Nite Tokens: A smart contract standard to represent property nights as tokens on blockchains.
2. Dusk: An industry-wide common language that any platform can use to describe real-estate properties and their rental conditions.
The v3 booking contract upgrade adopts this new smart contract standard so that:
- Every Dtravel property has its own Nite Token contract, a single source of truth.
- Each booking creates a non-fungible token minted at the time of booking that's unique to the property and booking.
- In the near future, operators can authorize special uses of the Nite Tokens after bookings.
In the next iteration of the booking contract (v4 upgrades), additional open-sourced data fields will be added to the Nite Tokens to make the booking information more robust and valuable for builders and users.
Growth and Marketing
Marketing Site Updates
Since the website plays a key role in speaking to the many stakeholders that make Dtravel a reality, it’s important that we’re continuously making improvements. Over the last month, we released updates to a number of the operator pages as well as the TRVL token page. Please take a look at the updated pages below:
For those curious about how TRVL distribution works, here’s some more insight, which we’ll be adding to the token page in the form of tooltips.
- Circulating Supply is the total amount of liquid tokens.
- Locked Tokens are those that have not yet become unlocked from TGE smart contracts.
- Vested Tokens are unlocked and available for distribution.
- Vested Tokens do not need to enter circulating supply. (E.g. Vested tokens from the Community Growth Fund are transferred to Multi-Sig wallet and will only enter circulating supply once the community has voted on an initiative to distribute the tokens)
- Tokens locked in staking vaults are temporarily removed from Circulating Supply.
Metaverse Tourism
Dtravel partnered with the Metaverse Tourism Association to help travel businesses ease the adoption of web3 and blockchain technology. We’re looking forward to being one of the key ways to onboard more travel and hospitality operators into web3 through education and onboarding to Dtravel.
Learn more about Metaverse Tourism.
Book Direct Show Awards
Dtravel was nominated for the 2024 Book Direct Show’s Best Software Solution Award, which recognizes companies who support short-term rental operators in generating more direct bookings through innovative software solutions.
The nomination is strong validation of the Dtravel brand and the impact we've been having on the vacation rental industry.
Media
Borderless Capital Invests in TRVL
Travel and crypto media platforms were alive with excitement following the strategic partnership announcement with Borderless Capital. Here are just a few of the publications that showed their support:
Book Direct Day
On February 7, 2024 we joined operators in an annual initiative focused on educating travelers on the advantages of booking vacation rentals directly with owners and operators.
Follow us on Instagram to see the posts from the initiative.
Tokenizing Vacation Rentals on Polygon PoS (Booking Contract Upgrade)
We’ve been working hard to introduce real innovation to the vacation rental industry and we were blown away by how others are just as excited about what we’re building as we are. Here are just a few of the publications that covered our partnership with Polygon PoS:
The Polygon Commons
We appeared on the Polygon Commons X Space to discuss DePIN and how Dtravel is incentivizing the growth of a peer-to-peer vacation rental ecosystem with TRVL,
Listen to the full Polygon Commons X Space.
Avalanche
We hosted an X Space with Jake Cvengros of Avalanche discussing how travel will be the industry to drive mainstream crypto adoption.
Listen to the full Avalanche X Space.
Growth and Scaling Podcast
Dtravel’s CEO, Cynthia Huang, appeared on Todd Westra's Growth and Scaling Podcast to discuss how Dtravel is driving the global adoption of directly bookable vacation rentals while creating a rewarding travel experience for everyone by applying blockchain technology.
Watch the full Growth and Scaling Podcast episode.
What’s Next
- TRVL Tokenomics and Governance
- Nite Protocol Litepaper and development
- Dtravel Sensei Alpha release
- V4 Booking Contract upgrades
Dtravel Direct updates:
- Tailored onboarding flows based on interest (e.g. direct booking site, distribution, or widget)
- Multi-calendar views
- Easier ways cancel / modify reservations
- Availability rules, cancelation policy, and more
Direct Booking Sites Primed for Distribution
We're making it easy for vacation rental operators to start and grow their direct booking business. To do this, we're not only focused on improving the features that come with Dtravel Direct, but also how we can help property managers drive more bookings.
Create a premium direct booking site with Dtravel Direct in minutes and get ready for our distribution network.