Hi Jenny - as it's a dining table it would probably be best to seal to avoid staining from dinner time spills! Perhaps you could contact the place you purchased for advice on what product to use.

Omg..I love it ..very, very jealous

Hi mluh You've obviously done your research on these products, so it's most likely going to come down to personal preference. As you've mentioned, a natural stone is going to come with an amount of maintenance but the beauty of Travertine is within its variation. Once sealed with a good quality sealer (I recommend Guard Industry), the maintenance is really quite low and most spills are lost within those natural variations. 99% of spills can be cleaned up without too much trouble. Porcelain, on the other hand, can be quite difficult to clean once it's been marked. That said, the external porcelains have a great non-slip texture and are very hardy when used as paving/tiles. I'm personally not a fan of using them as pool coping, but many people love it. Again, both have their advantages and disadvantages so I would recommend using the product that you're happy looking at for the next 10-20 years. - Jordan

Our understanding is that travertine is quite porous meaning it will absorb stains so you'd need to make sure it's installed with a good sealant (even then they're not totally impervious). I'd recommend talking to the manufacturer/installers and finding out what sealants they'd recommend and if you need to re-coat over it's lifetime. Also, ask for some samples and do your own tests at home. Test it with scratching and stains that you'd likely have in your home. We regularly do this on materials in our office and find it to be a very worthwhile experiment.