The launch uses Base, x402 and onchain payment rails to let AI agents search, book and pay for hotel stays, while offering developers a 10% cbBTC rebate for integrated bookings.
Binance-backed Travala has launched what it describes as the world’s first agentic AI travel protocol, designed to let autonomous agents search, book and pay for more than 2.2 million hotels, including Marriott, Hilton and IHG properties, with human involvement limited to payment authorization. The system, called the Travala Travel MCP, is built on Base and uses the x402 payments standard to enable gasless USDC transactions with near-instant settlement and booking costs of about $0.01. Travala is offering developers a 10% cbBTC rebate on successful bookings made through AI agents integrated with the protocol, with rewards settled onchain to developer wallets. The company said the technology can support an AI travel concierge operating in Claude, where users can plan, book and cancel trips within a single chat thread while keeping final signing authority in a secure wallet through ERC-7715 session keys. The launch is aimed at the emerging market for agentic commerce, which Travala said is projected to reach $8 billion in transaction value in 2026 and $3.5 trillion by 2031. Morgan Stanley Research forecasts that agentic shoppers could make up as much as 20% of online retail spending by 2030. Travala said additional travel products such as flights are planned, and that the AVA token is expected to gain further utility as the protocol expands.