Uber moves toward becoming an 'everything app' with hotel bookings powered by Expedia

An Uber sign is displayed at the company's headquarters in San Francisco, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Uber is expanding into a different side of the travel business: hotels.

The ride-hailing and delivery company said Wednesday that users of its app can now book hotel rooms. Uber is using hotel listings provided by Expedia Group, a booking service that works with 700,000 hotels and other properties globally. More than 1 million vacation rentals from Vrbo – which is owned by Seattle-based Expedia – will be added to the app later this year, the company said.

Sachin Kansal, Uber’s chief product officer, said hotel booking is a big step toward San Francisco-based Uber’s goal of becoming an “everything app” that serves many customer needs. Uber, which was founded in 2009, launched Uber Eats for restaurant deliveries in 2015 and expanded with grocery deliveries in 2020.

“Consumers are spending too much time coordinating their life, using multiple apps. AI is in the air and they’re all trying to figure out, how does AI help me or does it not help me?” Kansal told The Associated Press. “Our goal with these announcements is to bring everything into one app, to help them save time, and to also help them save money.”

Any Uber app user will be able to make hotel reservations. But Uber One members, who pay $9.99 per month for zero delivery fees and other perks, will get a 20% discount off a rolling list of 10,000 hotels plus 10% back in Uber credits they can use to book rides, Kansal said.

Kansal said Uber evaluated multiple partners before partnering with Expedia. Uber then spent months integrating Expedia’s technology into its own app. Kansal wouldn’t share the financial terms behind the partnership.

“They’re very excited because Uber brings a certain user base that is very travel-friendly,” Kansal said. “So I would say it’s going to mutually beneficial for both the parties.”

Travel is a big part of Uber users’ lives, he said. More than 100 million people use Uber to get to or from an airport each year. And last year, more than 1.5 billion Uber trips took place outside of a rider’s home city.

The hotel-booking feature was one of several travel-related announcements at Uber’s annual new product event Wednesday. Uber said an upgraded travel mode will help users find restaurants and other points of interest in the cities they visit.

Uber said users will soon get restaurant recommendations and be able to book tables in its app through OpenTable. Rival delivery service DoorDash recently began offering restaurant reservations in its app after buying hospitality platform SevenRooms.

Uber said it's also launching a service that will let users order a drink or snack that would be waiting for them when they get picked up by a driver using a premium Uber Black vehicle. The service is set to launch in the coming weeks in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and other cities.

Dee-ann Durbin, The Associated Press