Are stablecoin hotel prices the same as paying with a card?

In short

• Yes. The hotel price on trip1 is the same whether you pay with USDC or any other supported method.
• trip1 doesn't add a surcharge for stablecoin payments, and you avoid the foreign transaction fees a card might charge abroad.
• The exact USDC amount equals the dollar amount displayed at checkout - no markup, no spread.

One price, multiple payment methods

trip1 shows a single hotel price at checkout. That price doesn't change based on which crypto you pick or whether you choose a different supported method. The room rate stays exactly as quoted.

Where stablecoins can come out cheaper

When you book a hotel abroad with a card, you can run into:

• Foreign transaction fees of 1-3%
• Dynamic currency conversion charges if the merchant offers to bill you in your home currency
• Wider exchange rate spreads on the card network

USDC payments avoid all three. The dollar price is the dollar price - no foreign transaction surcharge.

Network fees are separate

Stablecoin payments do come with one small extra cost: the network gas fee charged by the blockchain. On Polygon, Arbitrum, Base, or Optimism, this is typically under 10 cents per transaction. On Ethereum mainnet it can be a few dollars during busy periods.

trip1 doesn't collect any of these network fees - they go directly to blockchain validators.