Travala has launched an AI-powered hotel booking protocol that gives agents access to more than 2.2 million properties and enables near-instant USDC payments on Base for about $0.01 per booking.
Summary
- Travala launched Travel MCP, allowing AI agents to search, book, and pay for hotel stays using USDC on Base.
- The protocol supports over 2.2 million hotel listings and uses Coinbase’s x402 infrastructure for gasless payments costing around $0.01.
- Travala plans to expand the AI booking system to flights after growing its travel network through partnerships with Trivago and Skyscanner.
According to reports, Singapore-based crypto travel platform Travala has released Travel MCP, a protocol that allows artificial intelligence agents to search, reserve, and pay for hotel stays using USDC on Coinbase’s Base network.
The system is already live through Claude Desktop, while third-party developers can integrate it into their own AI travel assistants.
Built on the Model Context Protocol, an open standard designed to connect AI applications with external tools, the protocol links Travala’s hotel inventory directly to AI agents.
Travala said payments are processed through Coinbase’s x402 protocol, enabling gasless USDC transactions with near-instant settlement and transaction costs of roughly one cent.
Although the booking process can be handled inside an AI conversation, travelers still retain final control over payments. Travala said authorization must be manually approved by the user, meaning the system is not fully autonomous despite automating much of the booking workflow.
Describing the launch as the beginning of a more automated travel economy, Travala CEO Juan Otero said in a statement that the company’s new protocol removes friction from the booking process and moves travel transactions closer to AI-assisted execution.
“The launch of the world’s first agentic AI travel protocol marks the death of the checkout button.”
The protocol combines AI booking with stablecoin payments
Inside the protocol, ERC-7715 session keys allow AI agents to request payments while leaving signing authority in the traveler’s wallet, according to Travala.
The company added that Travel MCP can maintain context across searches, bookings, and cancellations within a single chat session, allowing users to manage an entire trip through one conversation.
Set against a growing push toward machine-to-machine payments, the launch follows recent developments across the crypto industry. Recently, x402-linked wallets on Base surpassed 100 million transactions, while companies including Fireblocks, MoonPay, Exodus, and Oobit have introduced infrastructure designed for AI-driven stablecoin payments.
To encourage adoption, Travala said developers using the protocol will receive a 10% Coinbase Wrapped Bitcoin (cbBTC) rebate on completed hotel stays booked through AI agents.
Travala expands beyond crypto payments into AI infrastructure
At launch, the protocol covers more than 2.2 million hotel listings, including properties from Marriott, Hilton, and IHG that are sourced through Travala’s aggregator partners. The company said future updates will extend support to additional travel services, including flight bookings.
The release adds another layer to Travala’s expansion strategy. Earlier in 2025, crypto.news reported that the company integrated with Trivago, allowing travelers to book more than 2.2 million properties using over 100 cryptocurrencies. The platform has also established partnerships with Skyscanner and offers rewards in Bitcoin and its native AVA token.
Attention on the company increased further after it introduced a Bitcoin and AVA treasury reserve plan following more than $100 million in annual revenue during late 2024. Under that program, a portion of treasury assets and profits is allocated to Bitcoin and AVA, both of which support Travala’s loyalty ecosystem.
Founded in 2017, Travala competes with crypto-focused travel services such as Sleap.io and Alternative Airlines. While those platforms primarily focus on digital asset payments, Travel MCP places Travala in the emerging market for AI-powered booking infrastructure, where cryptocurrency payments and autonomous software tools are increasingly being combined into a single user experience.
