Uber (UBER) Adds Hotel Bookings to App via Expedia Partnership

Delivery and ride-hailing company Uber Technologies (UBER) has added hotel bookings to its app through a new partnership it has formed with travel company Expedia Group (EXPE).

Going forward, users of Uber’s app can book hotel rooms. Uber is using hotel listings provided by Expedia, a booking service that works with 700,000 hotels worldwide. More than one million vacation rentals from Vrbo, which is owned by Expedia, will also be added to the app later this year, said Uber.

In a news release, Uber said hotel bookings are a big step toward the company becoming an “everything app” that serves all of its customers’ travel needs. Uber, which was founded in 2009, launched Uber Eats for restaurant deliveries in 2015 and expanded to grocery deliveries in 2020.

Helping Consumers Organize Their Lives

“Consumers are spending too much time coordinating their life, using multiple apps… Our goal is to bring everything into one app, to help them save time, and to also help them save money,” said Uber. App users who are also “Uber One” members will get a 20% discount off a rolling list of 10,000 hotels, plus 10% back in Uber credits that they can use to book rides, said the company.

Uber said it evaluated multiple partners before partnering with Expedia on hotel bookings. Uber then spent months integrating Expedia’s technology into its app. Uber says travel is a big part of its customers’ lives. 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 customer’s home city.

Is UBER Stock a Buy?

Uber’s stock has a consensus Strong Buy rating among 27 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 25 Buy and two Hold recommendations issued in the last three months. The average UBER price target of $106.08 implies 44% upside from current levels.