I manage a hotel and the owner is interested in using Bitcoin as a payment option. How can we start to use this option and what will we need? There are multiple hotels he owns and would like to eventually get all of them using this option as well.
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Some answers to this question may depend on your geographic location, perhaps it would help if you provided information regarding the nation the hotels are located in and whether you want to accept Bitcoin on your website, over the counter, or both.– Murch ♦Jan 20, 2014 at 18:03
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related: How can I accept bitcoins on my website?, How do I accept bitcoin payments at a real world store?– Murch ♦Jan 20, 2014 at 18:05
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4 Answers
Depends on your budget or technical expertise I guess.
A. Install a wallet and create a new address. Post this address on the hotel's website and you are ready. This is the low tech solution and you would manually have to check the balance to see what payments are received.
B. Use a gateway like BitPay. It works like a Paypal for Bitcoins. The payment will be handled by BitPay and BitPay will send the coins to your address or convert them to fiat currency for you. This is probably the option you are looking for but BitPay takes a little fee of course. Coinbase or BIPS are alternatives.
C. Hire a developer to do the integration for you. This lets you customize the way you want it but is probably way more expensive.
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2Using one address has side effects and BIPS 70-72 will start changing this. Jan 20, 2014 at 16:36
If depends on your geographic preference and location in case you want to make it easier for national clients to use bitcoin as a payment transmission mechanism. But in case you are in the USA:
You need to look into how you would integrate this with your current hotel management/bookkeeping/accounting software in addition to the ecommerce aspects.
You may want to take a look at this https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/How_to_accept_Bitcoin,_for_small_businesses
and
Follow me on Twitter #ripplebits
If you want to accept Bitcoin as payment method on the checkout counter then create a account on http://blockchain.info and get your QRCode printed on a big paper an stick it somewhere near reception. If a guest in interested to pay using Bitcoin he may scan the QRCode and send money on that wallet address. That's it!
