The Uber Hotel
The growing super app
Can you tell that Uber is my favorite? I’ve written about my conviction in the company one too many times and its future prospects. Earlier this month, Uber announced a partnership with Expedia that will allow users to book hotels through their mobile app. This is something I wrote about in 2024 about the prospect of Uber becoming an everything app, that will be ubiquitous no matter where you are worldwide. This was an amazing step towards that ambition.
This Uber & Expedia partnership will give users access to a vast selection of hotels along with Uber One members getting discounted prices for bookings. This new feature makes a ton of sense. Travelers are in and out of airports constantly and chances are they will be needing a place to stay. Uber’s goal here is to make their product as sticky as possible. You book a ride to the airport, then a ride to the hotel, order some food to the lobby and so forth. It’s a connected flywheel of tasks without the hassle of using 3 different applications.
However, I think this will take some getting used to. Hotels aren’t the first thing you think of when opening the Uber app. Most people are used to booking through reputable travel sites or even their credit card provider for maximum perks. It also begs the question of cancellations or rebooking and how seamless customer service is through a third party aggregator. I also question how that affects hotel loyalty programs as well, although, Uber One offering 10% off for members and up to 20% on select hotels is a great incentive. It will certainly take some getting used to, but it’s nice to have the option within the app. In the end, this partnership probably benefits Expedia much more as they’re gaining more virtual real estate for their services.
Uber adding hotels is just another peg in their super app aspirations. Will flights be coming next? It’s possible, but I’m sure that will take some time. My thesis remains the same: Uber will be the dominant transportation app for users to achieve any task. The company is a cash flow machine and will continue to grow as more users onboard the platform. I legitimately don’t know what I’d do without Uber on my phone. If I need to go anywhere, or get anything, chances are Uber has me covered.
The hotel piece makes sense, but the real test is not whether Uber can add more services.
It is whether users change the mental default.
Rides and food are impulse use cases. Hotels are planned, higher-trust, and usually tied to loyalty points or credit card perks.
If Uber can make travel feel like one continuous workflow instead of separate bookings, the super-app thesis gets stronger. If not, hotels stay more like distribution inventory than platform gravity.
Didn't know about this partnership. Thanks for the update!