It was probably only a matter of time before crypto-friendly travel agency, Travala (CRYPTO: AVA), cast its lot with AI.  They are betting that Travala users will eventually tell AI where they want to go, approve a payment for them, and let the software handle the rest. 

"A traveler can set up the AI concierge in two minutes via Claude. Once set up, they can ask the agent to make a hotel booking, which will quickly narrow down the options for the traveler based on their prompt, avoiding decision paralysis," said Juan Otero, Travala's CEO.

The company is basically arguing that consumers don’t actually enjoy browsing hundreds of hotels. They simply have an objective: “I need a 4-star hotel in London’s West End for under $500.” Instead of searching through Expedia listings, filters, maps, reviews, and tabs, the traveler simply states the goal and the AI Agent does the work, payable in Circle (NYSE:CRCL) dollar coin.

They’re not pitching themselves as a better Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE). The new pitch to investors is Travala is building infrastructure in-house to be the Stripe for AI travel agents. Today users book on Travala and can pay in cryptocurrencies. Tomorrow thousands of third-party AI agents could theoretically use Travala’s inventory and payment rails in the background, suggesting Travala sees its future not only as a travel booking platform, but as the underlying infrastructure powering autonomous travel transactions across the emerging agentic commerce ecosystem. The travel market is the target. 

"The way we book travel is changing," Otero said. Agentic bookings are the next iteration of the online experience, and will exist alongside traditional online bookings and human travel agents for at least the foreseeable future. But I think the online travel market is moving toward agentic commerce, even though it's still very early days," he said.

Travala true believers – and users – hold the company's token, AVA. This is a micro-cap trade, trading at around $0.19. Like many alt-coins, it has collapsed since its initial offering and has had a rough 2026 like the broad cryptocurrencies market. AVA is a utility/rewards token. Token ownership does not equate to equity ownership in the company. 

A January 2025 article by CoinDesk said Travala received acquisition interest from Booking.com. (NASDAQ:BKNG) No deal materialized publicly, but the headline suggests Travala has attracted attention from traditional travel online travel agencies poking around the crypto-universe. 

Is Web3 Travel Really A Market?

Crypto in travel does seem to be moving from "pay in Bitcoin at checkout" toward "AI agents and digital wallets." Startups like Alternative Airlines also lets travelers book flights across airline companies worldwide, allowing for up to 100 cryptocurrencies as payments through well known Web3 players like Crypto.com (CRYPTO: CRO) and the Binance Pay run by Binance (CRYPTO: BNBT).

Emirates Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding with Crypto.com in July 2025 to explore integrating their payment infrastructure. 

AirBaltic is another example. They allow for Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) payment via Georgia-based BitPay. The Latvian-owned and based airline has long been cited as an early adopter of Bitcoin payments. 

Travala's platform launch this month comes as cryptocurrency payments and AI-powered commerce are increasingly intersecting with travel. Crypto-native platforms like Travala and Alternative Airlines already allow users to book hotels or flights with crypto, while some airlines are experimenting. At the same time, payments companies such as Visa (NYSE:V) and PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) are building tools that allow AI agents to shop and transact on behalf of users, suggesting that the next phase of online travel may shift from manual search and checkout toward chat-based, agent-driven booking. 

"Agentic AI saves time by eliminating the need for scrolling through countless options and comparing them across dozens of tabs," Otero said. "As the landscape evolves, the next step will be to grant full autonomy to agents, enabling travelers to set defined limits and let the agent handle everything. You'll simply set your spending limits and preferred travel merchants. You'll have those guardrails. But to unlock true autonomous commerce, you don’t look to traditional banks and companies," he said. "For that, you are going to have to look to crypto."

The writer holds Bitcoin. Cover art created by the author using Canva.

Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.