(), the hospitality-focused tech group, is making great strides in its plans to integrate blockchain technology into its systems, including accepting cryptocurrency as payment.
The firm's platform is used by hotels, ski and golf resorts.
The company has successfully accepted such payments and plans to begin rolling out this feature into its white label and registration management system (RMS) clients over the next few weeks, it said.
Additional value ...
It is expected that this will offer additional value to customers and to ZoomAway by avoiding traditional merchant processing fees.
"Additional savings will attract more customers and lead to more bookings and lead generation. Equally important, the adoption of these types of payment methods is a key component to the company's Smart Contract integration," said Tim Berfield, the chief technology officer at the firm.
With smart contracts in mind, ZoomAway plans to create an "instant pay" environment with "digital wallets" on both ends of transactions where the company's vendors are automatically paid for goods and services.
This will solve a big problem in the hotel industry where hotels and activity providers are paid on a slow cycle, the company said.
A number of advantages ...
Smart contracts will have a number of advantages, including allowing the firm to automate more detail-oriented arrangements for large or small groups.
It will also allow the firm to build interfaces for instant bookings of large group business and create so-called 'travel IDs' for each customer that will improve payment and refund methods.
"Our strategies are aimed at disrupting the practices of the hospitality and activities industries that have created significant barriers to entry," added Berfield.
"Several large players have had a strangle hold on both lodging and activities for a long time, and there's a real push because of Blockchain to drive out the middle man.
"ZoomAway is focused on providing the most efficient products directly to hotels and activity providers so that they can deal with their customers directly."
Ethereum picked ...
Last month, shares in the firm surged as it told investors it will use the Ethereum software platform to integrate blockchain into its operations.
Ethereum's virtual machine and open-source developer tools will allow the company to "fully integrate the advantages" of blockchain to its current systems, the group told investors.
Shares closed on Wednesday at C$0.08.