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)
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Replies (63)
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
Onchain, indeed.
Oh wow I was just about to give Travala a try…
Bitcoin's irreversibility will shine a light on fraud as a challenge to scale globally
View quoted note →
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?
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
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.
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 ?
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.
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 👀🫠
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
Appreciate the warning. Will steer clear.
sick
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.
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.
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.
This one?
View quoted note →
