The hospitality industry is witnessing a complete turnaround in the way bookings are made thanks to Lochchain.
Lockchian is building a decentralized open source bookings ecosystem for renting hotel rooms, private properties or accommodation (the decentralized LOC Ledger). Lockchain will be the first system which allows end customers and property owners to deal with each other on the platform without any fee or commission.
Lockchain.co will be the first marketplace/application that will connect with the decentralized engine (The LockChain.co Marketplace). The decentralized system will hold the LOC booking ledger which will be the core of the engine. In summary, LockChain is a decentralized open source bookings technology and an integrated marketplace, where hoteliers and property owners can rent their property globally, collect money and manage bookings without paying any commissions to middlemen. This is the place to book the place to stay for your next trip – a hotel, a private property or even part of a private property. Decentralized platform, built over Ethereum VM, will be open-source and free-to-use by the public. The marketplace will be web based and integrated to the blockchain.
The goal of Lockchain is to launch a decentralized engine in combination with a user-friendly marketplace which will be fully integrated to the engine as an immediate proof of concept. As of this moment Lockchain has reached a preliminary agreement with travel industry hosts, that supply more than 7,000 properties worldwide. Those properties are planned to be integrated into the decentralized LOC Ledger by the end of 2017.
Overview of Lockchain
Features and solutions provided by Lockchain
Cost of hotel booking and property renting is reduced by Lockchain;
Existing industry consist of Online Travel Agencies, dominated by established middlemen like Booking.com and Airbnb.com.
Hoteliers and Property owners are forced to use their centralized platforms, paying 10-25% commission. Lockchain is here to remove the middlemen are the payment processors and add more value to the end customers.
All listings and deal parameters on Lockchain will be decentralized on the Ethereum blockchain, eliminating all middlemen and guaranteeing transparent execution.
Property owners will receive their rent money using Lockchain (LOK) Tokens in a transparent, secure, trustless and commission-less way.
Lockchain.co marketplace’s web and mobile clients will present an easy-to use interface to add and edit their listings on the decentralized LOC ledger. One-click solutions for transferring current listing from other platforms will be provided for maximum comfort and they will be able to manage all listing and improve sales with in-depth data dashboards and analytics by Lockchain.
Traditional payment methods (e.g. credit cards, PayPal) will also be supported as an option because the LockChain.co markeplace will have a built-in algorithm that will execute automatic conversion of all external currencies into the LOC utility token. The synergy between the LockChain.co marketplace and the decentralized LOC ledger provides an ecosystem that is self-sufficient and powerful enough to compete with the best service providers in the $500 Billion accommodation sector.
The End customers will be able to browse for the best property using both web and mobile apps and will be empowered to book the same listings at a cheaper rate, thanks to blockchain technology, skipping the online travel agencies as current middlemen. The Lockchain.co marketplace will be as user-centric as possible, offering comfortable user interface and overall experience. The zero commission which by default is a feature of the decentralized LOC ledger, will provide the lowest rates, possible only when end customer and property owner deal directly.
Current market middlemen take 10-25% of the deal. Releasing the LOC ledger as a decentralized solution will bring this value back to the end-customer, allowing cheaper travel. By integrating marketplaces such as LockChain.co will increase the value of the LOC token and will provide a value change in the industry.
For the world – The entire decentralized LOC ledger, built on the Ethereum VM will be open source and free-to-use by anyone in the world. Lockchain’s site and app will be the first end-user application on top of this blockchain platform. In the future other organizations may decide to build their apps and use the decentralized opensource PropertyOwner - Customer platform.
How Lockchain works
There are 3 key component of Lockchain:
• HTML5 Web platform and iOS/Android mobile App;
This is a cross-platform end-user application, allowing easy booking of hotels and private properties.
• Centralized Backend;
This is Lockchain backend where records of all listing information are kept and providing insights and analytics for optimization. It has easy to use content management system, so property owners can add/manage their property listings on the blockchain.
• Decentralized Backend;
This if the property listings on the Ethereum blockchain, containing secured, trustless rules for payment and commitment, allowing all traditional models like no cancelation, cancelation, deposit guarantees etc. Adding new ones like incentives in LOK tokens for users to leave ratings and reviews
The business model
Property owners on lockchain platform won’t pay any commissions for transactions. The current premium model of the Online Travel Agency (OTA) industry is transformed to freemium model. This means that everyone will be able to use the decentralized ecosystem for free. However for additional payment, some extras and comfort features will be available on the LockChain.co marketplace which will directly compete with established OTA.
For the marketplace, there are two possible revenue models considered – pure freemium or mixed with subscription.
FREEMIUM: Everyone will be able to use the platform for free. However for additional payment, some extras and comfort features will be available. For example if you are a property owner, you can
list your property for free. Upon booking you will get 100% of the revenue, with no commission
for Lockchain. To achieve better visibility you can pay a small amount of LOCs for highlighting your
listing or bringing it on a higher position when a user performs search. Or you can upload more
pictures to a listing. Additional statistics and dashboards for optimizing property utilization can
also be provided to property owners as additional paid feature.
Paid features will not affect ratings and reviews. Lockchain aims to optimize trade between property owners and end customers, but never on the cost of quality and fair trade.SUBSCRIPTION: Fixed membership cost is another idea. It could be the exclusive monetization feature or mixed with freemium model.
LockChain subscribers will be the property owners - the landlords keen to rent space short-term, as per the established vacation rental (BnB) and other models. A single, fixed subscription fee in the $19-$99 per month range (depending on the number and size of the properties), will grant full access to a property owner who wants to promote on and use the LockChain marketplace.
A simple calculation shows how a hotel that generates $20,000 per month in revenue and pays 18% commission on revenue ends up paying $ 3,600 fees to a service provider that does not have any specific added value other than being a middleman and traffic aggregator. Because traffic to a large extent is driven by the lowest offered price, it results in a kind of closed loop.
If the same hotel owners pays $99 in form of a monthly membership fee - and we’ll assume that
he can receive the same amount of traffic - he will generate a saving of $3,501 (assuming again,
that LockChain can attract the clients with their lower-pricing model).
In that case, the hotel owner can choose to either lower his price and enjoy the same or similar
profit margins while being even more price competitive, or instead he can push the price up
and - while still staying below the high commission rates he pays out today – enjoy higher profits.
The LOC token: description and planned usage
The LOC token is an invariable part of the lockchain our ecosystem and will be the utility token that gives access to both clients and hotel owners to the decentralized LOC ledger.
When you buy LOC, you unlock full service abilities of lockchain decentralized booking marketplace. It will be the mean to book hotel and accommodation stays, property rentals, and associated services.
The landlord or hotelier accepts this form of crypto-currency and can withdraw it from the
LockChain.co marketplace or any other marketplace which is integrated with the decentralized
LOC Ledger.
From a client’s perspective who browses the Lock- Chain.co marketplace, the use of LOC tokens will
not be a requirement. But in reality, what will happen at the time of any purchase is that the marketplace will use its built-in algorithm to convert any external means of payment into LOC. Use
of other fiat and crypto-currencies will be provided as a service, although charges of 1-3% may apply. Over time, more functionality will be released. By launching its own native token and decentralizing
the ledger of hotels, LockChain aims to solve a long-standing problem - how to make online bookings cheaper and transparent, while retaining the speed and safety of all the processes involved.
People can buy LOC tokens at home, and they will appreciate their real-time application immediately, alongside the token’s potential to appreciate in value.
The LOC tokensale is mathematically limited to a total of 155 Million.
Based on what is sold during the tokensale, will be generated additionally the Team Pool and Reserve in a 50% - 25% - 25% ratio.
Token Distribution
Any LOC which is unsold from the token sale will be destroyed. There’s no need to exit the Lockchain.co marketplace in order to do a currency conversion. After you have purchased the tokens, you can immediately take advantage of the savings.
LOC tokens will be incentivized among paying members. Use LockChain’s native token, and you pay no commission at all forever. Clients receive additional refunds and rewards on their transactions upon writing of a review. These karma-based rewards systems can be extended and expanded upon.
The plan of Lockchain Our plan is to launch the LockChain.co marketplace together with the decentralized booking LOC Ledger. The two elements provide a self-sufficient relationship and offer a 20% more competitive pricing that can easily outperform the established competitors.
The marketplace will accept LOC Tokens, Bitcoins, Ether, Litecoin and fiat currencies via conventional payment methods. In addition to the proprietary marketplace, the LOC ledger will be available free of charge for anyone who wishes to plug into the global ecosystem. This will increase the value of the LOC token and empower travel industry websites entering into the market to provide extremely competitive rates without investing heavily into webhosting, design and server-end technologies.
During the sales, the LOC will be distributed between the pre-sale and main sale as follows:
The Sales price for the LOC shall be as shown below
The allocation of fund shall be as follows
Lockchain Strategy
The project development program is as follow:
- Issue the LOC token and raise funds
- Build the marketplace (both web based and mobile application) and launch the beta version of the decentralized LOC ledger.
- Integrate the marketplace to the decentralized engine to support bookings.
- Add at least 7,000 properties by 2017’s year-end so that our users can spend their LOCs and test the platform
- Attract more property owners to list their hotels and short term rentals as well as attract accomodation software integrators to list their whole porftolio of clients
- Offer unmatched competitive prices to worldwide customers
- Attract and reward loyalty of customers
- Disrupt the monopolies and change the way we book our hotels
- Embrace any startup or established travel applications which wish to connect to the decentralized LOC ledger
Key features of LockChain’s strategy are to:
• Introduce and incentivize a reluctant industry – hotels and property rentals – to the blockchain and digital space
• Undercut the financial, booking aggregator, travel agency and software industries, which together can take as much as 25% in commission in each hotel booking transaction
• Match customer service expectations in the travel and tourism sectors, providing transparent details related to booking availability and pricing, on a platform that rewards loyalty in ways that, until now, have not been prevalent in the industry
• Provide seamless integration to property owners, who could sync their hotels with a single click or import of a csv file
• Provide a free of charge availability management tool to property owners
The Big vision of Lockchain
Lockchain wants to create a world where all humans who ae citizens of the world can have an easy and affordable way of travelling to different locations across the world.
Lockchain is utilizing the emerging new blockchain technology to disrupt a growing industry of $500bn from its foundation, where until now, using decentralized architecture to further improve the working models, was not possible.
By widely distributing LOK tokens to a global group of participants, Blockchain expects to align interests of hoteliers, private property owners and travelers. LOK tokens will be used to settle all bookings. Traditional means of payment like credit cards will also be supported, but as a secondary option.
Road map
The road map to achieving the vision of Lockchain is as shown below.
The team behind Lockchain
Nikola Alexandrov
(Founder & CEO)
Co-founder of Bitcoin7 - among the first bitcoin exchanges way back in 2011, 3rd in volume worldwide back then. 4 Years of experience in the development of travel
industry meta-search aggregator (BookingSpot). Founder of theSEO.com - digital marketing agency, winner of the Forbes E-volution award 2015 for best SEO agency and founder of the proprietary “E-Cron” online retailing brand with more than 150,000 customers per year in 30+ countries and registered trademark in 28 countries. Strong expertise in the field of digital marketing, e-commerce and fintech algorightms.
Hristo Tenchev
(Founder & COO)
Co-founder of Bitcoin7 - among the first bitcoin exchanges way back in 2011, 3rd in volume worldwide back then. Founder of XS Software (www.xs-software.com), one of the most successful gaming companies in Europe with more than 50 million registered players worldwide. Co-founder at Software University (Softuni.bg), innovative IT education center with more than 100,000 software engineering students for its 3 years history, also pioneering blockchain education in Bulgaria. Co-founder of 1Hub (www.1hub.io), co-working digital creative space, based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Hristo has been featured on the cover of Forbes Bulgaria, as well as being listed in the European Forbes “30 under 30” for the most successful entrepreneurs in Europe under 30 years of age.
Nevena Petrova
(Head of Business Development)
IATA certified travel specialist. Founder of Kalford Lane (HK) Limited - 10 years travel industry experience. 6 years experience in Digital Marketing & Online Advertising - AdWords & Display Ads. 15 years of practice as a team leader. 4 years of experience
in multicultural working environment with 300+ successfully completed projects. Extensive competence in the Travel, iGaming, Forex and binary Options Verticals. Knowledge of ORM & CRO - Online Reputation Management & Conversion Rate Optimization.
Prerit Srivastava
(CTO)
Ethereum Block Chain developer with deep knowledge on DAPPS on Ethereum Mainnet, setting up private blockchain, building smart contracts, launching ICO (initial coin offering). Has architected and coded 2 token-sales prior to joining LockChain’s team.
Jon Abrams
(Canada Operations)
Founder of “First Directive” - Over 15 years of M&A experience with strong network of online entrepreneurs.
Rosen Plevneliev
(Chief Advisor)
President of Bulgaria from 2012 to 2017 and one of the founders of the innovation ecosystemn of ICT in Bulgaria which has proven to be among the best ecosystems in Easter Europe. President Plevneliev is a patron and co-founder of the software outsourcing and automotive ICT clusters. During his mandate, 80,000 jobs have been
created in these industries. A passionate Software engineer according to his academic degree, In 1989 he graduated from the Higher Mechanical-Electrotechnical Institute, Sofia, and in the same year become a fellow at the Institute for Microprocessing Technology, Pravets. In 1982 he won first place in national contest for software
engineering. Knows personally one of the most influential tech leaders in the world such as Bill Gates.
Eva Maydell
(Legal Advisor)
Member of the European Parliament representing the European People’s Party Group (Christian Democrats). Maydell worked in the International Development Law Association in Rome from 2008 to 2009 before becoming a political advisor to MEP Iliana Ivanova.
Nikola Stojanow
(Advisor)
Experienced ICO Business developer who is part of the Aeternity™ ICO. As a multi-national Business Development Executive with experience working in Germany, Eastern Europe, MENA, Asia and Pacific, Nikola is the go-to person for Strategy and Business Development. He has developed and consulted numerous international
projects for almost a decade and has recently been introduced to the unlimited possibilities of blockchain technologies.
Richard Gibney
(Head of Content Strategy & PR)
Editor / Sub Editor / Writer at Yeah! Magazine and winner of a number of literature awards in Ireland.
Tanko Geritliev
(Senior Developer)
Senior front-end and backend developer with a number of successfully projects.
Some useful links
Website: https://lockchain.co
FAQ: https://lockchain.co/FAQ.html
Whitepaper: https://lockchain.co/whitepaper_v1.2_p.pdf
Telegram Community: https://t.me/Lockchainco
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LockChainCo
N.B. Above information has been sourced and compiled from the various communication channels of Lockchain.
ETH Address: 0x88985FE4D7d5bC90A4Cc0a73aDdA3866Bf05B93d