- Uber to add hotel booking to its U.S. app.
- Vrbo will be added later this year.
- Uber rides will be integrated into the Expedia app in June.
UBER TECHNOLOGIES INC. is working with Expedia Group to enable hotel booking in its app for U.S. customers. The collaboration will expand beyond the U.S. to Expedia’s more than 700,000 listings worldwide.
Uber One members earn 10 percent back in Uber One credits on hotel bookings and at least 20 percent off a rotating list of more than 10,000 hotels, the companies said in a statement. Vacation rentals from Expedia’s Vrbo will be added later this year.
“Uber is becoming an app for everything—helping people go, get and now travel all in one place,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO. “We’re all living through a moment of real cognitive overload: too many apps, too many decisions, too much noise. At the end of the day, our job is to help people reclaim their time by spending less of it managing the logistics of life and more of it actually living.”
After an initial pilot, Uber rides will be integrated into the Expedia app starting in June, the statement said. Travelers will receive push notifications before hotel check-in to book discounted Uber rides for their trip.
Ariane Gorin, Expedia’s CEO, said travel should feel effortless and the partnership moves the company closer to a seamless traveler experience.
“By connecting our two-sided marketplace with Uber, we’re bringing Uber rides directly into the Expedia app and Expedia’s lodging inventory into the Uber app through our Rapid API technology,” she said. “Together, we’re helping travelers spend less time planning and more time enjoying the journey.”
The hotel booking tool works like other travel sites, with search, maps and filters for price, amenities and ratings. Users can pay with card details saved in the app.
Uber broadened its ambitions in 2014 with Uber Eats, which began as a food delivery service and expanded into broader retail, including cosmetics and electronics.
Uber was founded in 2009 by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick, while Expedia was founded in 1996 by Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink as a Microsoft spin-off.
A report by NYU School of Professional Studies’ Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality and Boston Consulting Group found that travelers increasingly rely on AI-based digital assistants to plan and book trips. In a shift from search and scroll to ask and book, hotels will compete for inclusion on travelers’ shortlists.
