Uber moves toward becoming an 'everything app' with hotel bookings
powered by Expedia
[April 30, 2026] By
DEE-ANN DURBIN
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.
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 “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.
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