Travala debuts agentic AI travel protocol with gasless USDC payments on Base

Singapore-based crypto-native travel booking service Travala introduced what it described as an end-to-end agentic AI travel protocol that enables autonomous software agents to search, reserve, and settle payments for hotel properties without human intervention until the final authorization step.

Dubbed the Travala Travel MCP, the protocol is designed for agentic commerce, operates on the Base Layer 2 blockchain, and integrates the x402 open payments standard to enable instant stablecoin payments directly over the internet for APIs, applications, and AI agents without manual checkout flows, the company said in a statement.

The company argued that the infrastructure removes friction from traditional booking and payment processes by allowing gasless USDC transactions on Base with near-instant settlement times and transaction costs of approximately $0.01 per booking.

Travala said the technology powers an AI travel concierge capable of planning and executing complete trips within a single chat thread in Claude. The concierge operates in a conversational style, maintaining context across searches, bookings, and cancellations while using ERC-7715 session keys to ensure that payment requests originate from the agent, but final signing authority remains isolated to the user's secure wallet environment.

The protocol also incorporates ERC-8004, which Travala said creates a machine-verifiable trust layer for performance tracking.

The company said future updates will expand the system to additional travel verticals, including flights, while the AVA token will continue to serve as the native asset within its loyalty framework.

To incentivize adoption, Travala is offering a 10% rebate in cbBTC to developers who build and integrate AI agents with the protocol.

Founded in 2017 and backed by Binance, Travala bills itself as a crypto-native travel booking service with more than 2.2 million properties across 230 countries. The platform says it accepts over 100 cryptocurrencies alongside traditional payment methods.