Warning: do NOT use travala.com any more, if you did.
They directly stole my money.
Here is my response to the customer service agent:
(Customer service agent),
> Sorry for the delay, im ahmed from compliance department, for refund or either processing the booking, the verification is a mandatory step, we require the minimum and basic info for that, and you can pass it easily through the following link : <snipped>
Let's establish the facts: I have been a regular customer of Travala for years, have done probably a hundred or more bookings through your site - mentioning this *not* to claim some status as a customer (which I do not want, and do not have), but to point out that ZERO times on the website or through any of those transactions was it mentioned that you could simply keep my money and provide no service - i.e. STEAL my money - if I did not pass a verification process -handing over extensive and intrusive personal documents - that you never documented anywhere. And indeed for this booking, again, no such advance warning was given.
So you (that is to say Travala, not you personally!) act exactly as a kidnapper: to give me back the money which is mine, you insist that I hand over security sensitive information. Which I will not do. There are an endless stream of documented violent theft events of cryptocurrency holders, so spreading one's personal information is stupid, and any claim you make to "keep my data safe" is ridiculous, given the equally endless stream of reported hacking events. I do not trust your company with my personal information because I don't trust *any* company with it.
I have been doing Bitcoin development work for over a decade, I will make sure that a lot of people in the community know that Travala steals its customers money, directly, with no apology.
Feel free to pass this message to any management, I would appreciate that.
(me)
Replies (73)
This is a scandal! Shame on Travala..
I wish I could say no company in the past did this ... but at least you didn't use to hear about it so much with retail services like this. Sigh.
Lame! Think I'd heard you refer them a couple times in past.
We have also seen this
Can you confirm the payment method? Was it on-chain or lightning?
The problematic one we had was onchain
Oh shoot. So travala is a Bitcoin booking travel site. Who's behind it?
When exactly did you make that booking? Before or after Jan 1st 2026?
Good question! After. I see what you mean, new regs right?
oh shit
thanks for posting this.
I've used them less and less and will stop altogether now.
Fuck travala 🧐
Backed by binance I think
I most recently used Travala just prior to New Years... I should do a low value test transaction.
It was acquired by binance many years ago.
That sucks, sorry for the loss, hope you get it back.
Just curious and somewhat sensitive, but was there a coinjoin in the recent transaction history?
Yes, I am 90% sure this was the cause - though as you know, we are forced to guess!
Dang I use them all the time
Do not use onchain
Got a friend who crowdcubed this. Never got any money out of it.
Such a shame.
I used them once and had no problems.
Was going to use them again this year
Thanks for letting us know. Not gonna use their service in this case anymore. They can go and fuck themselves.
Isn’t Lightning equally easy to trace?
Binance doesn’t even care about it, they just wanted to have Travala IMO …
Hadn't heard of them. But generally not in the habit of patronizing companies that do anything with crypto.
Do they usually require IDs? Never used them before, so a newbie here.
No, at least, they never did. Just email.
Are there any good alternatives to using Travala?
What a shame.. I used their service many many times.
What? That’s ridiculous, using them for most of my bookings… 🥺
DAC 8 ?
Havent heard about that? They dont even accept XMR so would make little sense... Maybe youre thinking of shopinbit ?
Had planned on making some flight bookings with travala but now will have to reconsider. Any idea of an alternative?
Bummer. Cheapair fell. Now Travala. The walls are closing in. The biggest corporations get deputized first.
Could not fetch invoice from
https://getalby.com/lnurlp/redsun63681/callback: Recipient wallet error. Please contact the recipient.
But given you're somewhat not new to coinjoin, were prior bookings not private UTXOs?
This should have been the red flag 🚩
Bit too much, prefer not to say more.
Yeah sorry can't fix it rn.
See Peter's reply. Very plausibly new EU regs are involved, though I'm just guessing.
That sounds right. I mixed the two up.
I've used them in the past .. but no longer!
Bitcoin onchain has zero privacy. The coinjoin only sort of resets the pseudonymity, but all the details are there, which is how they know you did it.
Just use lightning in this case (for anyone reading, for the OP it's too late, SFYL)
I was a happy customer there too, will use direct bookings instead now.
Good question as I haven’t ever had issues paying with Bitcoin before. It was actually quite smooth
I guess bitrefill? Buy a gift card with crypto. I think a few airlines like Emirates accept Bitcoin ?
We need btc airlines. Where the pilots at? Airbtc.online is good for places to stay
I was just about to book PlanB El Salvador trip there, and pay with btc 👀🫠
Never heard of Tea aka, but I've heard of Bitcoin Travel.
Thanjs for this timely warning!
Thanks for the heads-up. I just got to about this recently and was thinking of giving it a try.
No trust, no service, no excuses.
In crypto we move fast, keep our keys, and never let anyone steal our sats.
Travala just learned the hard way.
…umm…directly…
Literally just book direct.
Yes
No it’s a “crypto” booking site
Used travala for the first time this year, now will be my last. Thank you for the warning, ran into similar bullshit with Bitpay.
Shame indeed. I was plaanning on using them now forthe first time. Can you share if you paid onchain or lightning? Also, what personal identifiable info did they ask before (none?) and whag info did they ask now?
Appreciate the warning. Will steer clear.
Looks like the message I wrote to banks when they took my money hostage "requiring" more paperwork. I would say thats none of their business. And then they would conclude they could no longer serve me and were required to debank me. And I would say "I already found a bank that treats my money better than you do, bye!"
Fuck their wish for more control through fear. Fuck them.
Go somewhere where your money is treated best.
Thanks for the travala warning. It should go on a list of companies or banks not to use.b
sick
Shopinbit.com
If this is news to you, you are a noob.
They are a front for Binance.
This is war time. Use any centralised third party as if they are your enemy.
Tainted (risk scored) transactions are a real thing on transparent chains.
That's why cypherpunks preach the use of Monero.
In the case of Travala, the removal of Monero (after advertising it big times on Reddit and elsewhere) has been a gigantic red flag.
Huge business opportunity for those who know how to set this up correctly.
waxwing
Warning: do NOT use travala.com any more, if you did.
They directly stole my money.
Here is my response to the customer service agent:
(Customer service agent),
> Sorry for the delay, im ahmed from compliance department, for refund or either processing the booking, the verification is a mandatory step, we require the minimum and basic info for that, and you can pass it easily through the following link : <snipped>
Let's establish the facts: I have been a regular customer of Travala for years, have done probably a hundred or more bookings through your site - mentioning this *not* to claim some status as a customer (which I do not want, and do not have), but to point out that ZERO times on the website or through any of those transactions was it mentioned that you could simply keep my money and provide no service - i.e. STEAL my money - if I did not pass a verification process -handing over extensive and intrusive personal documents - that you never documented anywhere. And indeed for this booking, again, no such advance warning was given.
So you (that is to say Travala, not you personally!) act exactly as a kidnapper: to give me back the money which is mine, you insist that I hand over security sensitive information. Which I will not do. There are an endless stream of documented violent theft events of cryptocurrency holders, so spreading one's personal information is stupid, and any claim you make to "keep my data safe" is ridiculous, given the equally endless stream of reported hacking events. I do not trust your company with my personal information because I don't trust *any* company with it.
I have been doing Bitcoin development work for over a decade, I will make sure that a lot of people in the community know that Travala steals its customers money, directly, with no apology.
Feel free to pass this message to any management, I would appreciate that.
(me)
View quoted note →
Monero alternative?
It's one of the biggest business opportunities at the moment.
You guys will learn about the importance of fungibility. Something us OGs that actually use Bitcoin daily for over ten years had to find out at one point as well.
Use tainted coins and the empire will not grant you access.
Guess why we all landed in camp Monero?
Because it is about information.
It's better to know a service doesn't take Monero so I can route around them.
While when they use Monero I know there will never be a problem of acceptance. That is peace of mind and a huge market opportunity for those that can see this.
I bet most people here depend on Travala/Binance for their international travels.
It's a good time to learn about tainted coins.
And another one bites the dust.
There are two forms of money acceptance
1. Adoption
2. Fungibility
Many people in the community will learn why so many OGs pivoted for Monero when doing our transactions.
Fungibility empowered through encryption means peace of mind and less friction which translates into economic prosperity.
I’m sorry for that. Been there with another one StealthEX (should be stealEX).
I have to say that it was my fault, at the time I already had lots of experience on the P2P and still decided to risk with a potential scammer.
It was a good lesson for me, since that I only P2P and encourage the ghetto swaps, build community.
Centralized deserve nothing but fiat
Post about this elsewhere other than Nostr too, by the way. It'd be good to get more word out (and would fuck with Travala more).
I believe this is not about travala. Its about the KYC/AML procedures that the ruling mafias force them to adopt. Otherwise they are money launderers and terrorists. And it comes from FATF.
View quoted note →It's not
I'm not aware of any place online that you can buy hotels or playing tickets for Monero
I'm not aware of any place online that you can buy hotels or tickets for Monero.
maybe there's a gift card solution?
I'm sure the EU would like to spread the idea that if you refuse to give your private information then your money is probably illicit and you have no right to it back.
Travala accepts lightning. I've pretty much only used it with lightning.
