With the words 'blockchain' and 'ICO' being the latest buzzwords in tech startups, Singapore-based GOeureka is pitching itself as the new disruptor in hotel bookings.

GOeureka, which aims to launch by the fourth quarter of this year, wants to “decentralise the hotel booking sector and deliver greater transparency by allowing hotels to directly connect with their customers”.

It plans to launch a new hotel booking platform by the fourth quarter of this year where hotels will not be charged commissions but consumers are charged a 5% transaction fee when paying by credit card or cryptocurrencies other than GO tokens (GOT). Consumers who pay with GOT incur no transaction fee.

Manrai Raj: “It is a tough industry to navigate. If you can do it in the right way, there is a way to disrupt it.”

CEO and co-founder Manraj Rai, who said he’s been involved in the cryptocurrency market since 2014, came up with the idea of GOeureka in mid-2017. The Malaysian entrepreneur, who has been involved in the hospitality sector for over a decade, said that in conversations with hotel owners, “they told me that although OTAs contribute a significant amount of room bookings, the big problem is that hotel chains pay out billions of dollars in commissions to OTAs on a yearly basis”.

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