Uber adds hotels to its app in big travel swing

Open Uber’s app and you’ll see options to hail a car, order some food, or go grocery shopping. And starting today, you’ll see something new: hotels.

In a major expansion into the world of travel accommodations, Uber says that it’s adding the ability to book and pay for a hotel room to its app. The news was announced at the company’s annual Go/Get product event, at which the company also unveiled several other travel-oriented features.

Hotel reservations would be one of the biggest swings in Uber’s recent history. But it’s also something that’s been on the company’s radar for quite a while. Uber says its working in partnership with Expedia, the travel booking company that the company reportedly considered acquiring in 2024, and at launch will include over 700,000 hotel properties around the world. Also of note, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was the CEO of Expedia before accepting his current role.

Sachin Kansal, Uber’s chief product officer, said that Uber customers already use the app for a variety of travel purposes, whether its getting a ride to the airport or ordering food through Uber Eats once they’ve arrived at their destination. The inclusion of hotels is assumed to be a natural next step.

“I think there will continue to be multiple apps in this world, as there already are in the travel world and the hotels world,” Kansal said in an interview. “Our main goal is to be able to tie the experience together for our users.”

The feature works through Expedia’s API, though Kansal explained that Uber’s engineers worked to design the tool to integrate seamlessly into the company’s app.

“It’s not just us putting a web view in there based on their UI,” he said. “We’ve actually built it from the ground up using pretty detailed APIs that we get, so it’s a great partnership from a development perspective and a technical perspective.”

Uber envisions its customers using its app to book hotels, order rides to the hotel, and then room service once they’ve arrived. Uber One subscribers will get added discounts when booking rooms with specific hotel chains, while also earning points they can then apply to ridehailing or food delivery. And starting later this year, Uber is adding home rentals from Vrbo, another Expedia-owned site, to its app.

In addition to Vrbo, Expedia Group also owns Hotels.com, Travelocity, Hotwire, and Orbitz. Its main competitor is Booking Holdings, which controls Booking.com, Priceline, Kayak, and CheapFlights. Each company spends billions of dollars a year in marketing alone as they compete with one another. Booking is currently the market leader, though Expedia is hoping to rise in the ranks thanks to its partnership with Uber.

Of course, Uber is taking a big risk in diving into the hotel booking space. The company isn’t immediately recognizable as a hotel broker, so it may take time before customers associate its app with travel accommodations. And the company’s app seems to be growing more and more crowded by the minute. Now, with the inclusion of hotels, there’s risk that customers will become overwhelmed by the extra offerings and just ignore them.

Kansal said that Uber’s engineers are tackling the problem of clutter by personalizing the homepage to each user’s experience. And the company is adding a “one search” function, in which users can search for generalized topics, like “ice cream,” and the app will surface either destinations or takeout options, depending on the user’s preferences.

In addition, Uber is adding a new travel mode to the app to help users navigate unfamiliar airports with indoor walking directions. The app will also offer city guides for visitors looking for local favorites and popular tourist destinations. And starting this summer, European customers will see the option to book boat rides directly in the app.

But not everything Uber is announcing today is travel related. The company announced a new, on-the-go snack option, in which Uber Black or Uber SUV customers can request a snack or beverage in the vehicle waiting for them. Kansal said that since many Uber drivers are also couriers for Uber Eats, the ability to request a snack or drink for the ride is basically merging the two experiences. “They will get paid for both the jobs appropriately,” he added.

Another new feature is called “Shop for Me,” in which Uber customers can request items from stores not currently listed in Uber’s directory. Customers can indicate the items they want to purchase, and then Uber’s drivers and couriers can buy them at the requested store.

Lastly, Uber is integrating AI-powered search features into its app, allowing customers to use voice prompts to book a vehicle. For example, a user can ask the Uber app to book a cheap car that can fit five pieces of luggage for a ride to the airport, and the AI-powered feature will complete the reservation for them.

This will join Uber’s other AI-powered features, like generating a grocery order based on an uploaded picture of a list of items. The company is also racing to add hundreds of robotaxis through partnerships with developers like Waymo and Wayve, as well as fleets of sidewalk delivery robots.

The next logical step seems to be air travel, but Kansal wouldn’t say whether flights was one Uber’s roadmap. “Not at this time,” he said. “I want to just make sure that we nail this experience. The amount of opportunity that we have to be able to create a seamless experience between rides and eats and hotels, there’s still a lot more to do.”