Cheapair.com, an American travel agency, has revealed that it has ceased using other companies to process clients’ Bitcoin payments. It decided this after Coinbase closed its merchant platform causing the travel agent to run into problems.

Clients payments through Bitcoin will from now on be processed through BTCPayServer. Cheapair.com is said to be pleased with the outcome of the tests performed by the new payment processor. The travel agency is optimistic that the digital currency payment option will benefit it as well as its clients.

Looking for a replacement

BTCPayServer is a free and open-source solution that is used to process payments made through the use of Bitcoin. The travel agent has been looking for a new Bitcoin payment processor for the last several months. It successfully relied on Coinbase’s services since 2013 until it closed its platform in April this year. Through Coinbase it was able to accept other digital currencies such as Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and Dash (DASH).

It has been an uphill battle for Cheapair.com in its bid to find a new replacement for Coinbase. The company even went to the extent of seeking help from its customers through its website. It went ahead to ask for recommendations for an efficient Bitcoin payment processor.

Customers helpful

Customers responded positively and even led to the travel agent realizing that it did not really require a new payment processor. It dawned on Cheapair.com that by finding a replacement, the firm would expose itself to a new set of operational risks. The firm discovered that it can mitigate third-party risk by securing the payment process by itself. Cheapair.com’s CEO Jeff Klee said that “I cannot tell you how grateful I am for the overwhelming amount of thoughtful feedback we received”. He admitted that they went into the process thinking that they were on a desperate quest to find a new processor.

The CEO stated that for about a month now, his company has been testing an open source Bitcoin payment processor, BTCPayServer. He admitted that he had never heard of it before until customers suggested to him to have a look at it.

BTCPayServer has allowed the company to be in control of the process. It is able to process orders quickly and more efficiently. Additionally, the travel agent is able to deal with problems that arise from the cryptocurrency payments.