Uber and Expedia Group have entered into a strategic partnership that transforms the ride-sharing platform into a travel hub, offering users access to over 700,000 accommodation units. The initiative, previously reported by Profit.ro, marks an essential stage in diversifying Uber’s services, while the company recalibrates its business model through multi-billion euro investments in autonomous technologies to compete effectively in the emerging robotaxi market.<\/p>\n
The agreement allows Uber users, currently those in the US, to book hotels directly through the app, with Uber One members benefiting from a 10% cashback system in the form of credits and discounts of at least 20% at over 10,000 properties. Starting in June, the integration will become bidirectional, with Uber rides being available directly in the Expedia app. The expansion will later include the Vrbo brand for vacation rentals. Simultaneously, Uber is launching new features such as ‘Travel Mode’, which offers personalized recommendations and hotel ‘room service’ style services, ‘Shop for Me’ for purchases from any store, and ‘Eats for the Way’ for ordering snacks during Uber Black rides.<\/p>\n
From a strategic standpoint, Uber is allocating over EUR 8.59 billion for the development of its autonomous vehicle fleet and the acquisition of stakes in profile companies, attempting to overcome the limitations of the traditional ‘gig economy’ model. This direction is supported by the expertise of the current CEO, who came from Expedia, and a multimodal vision that unifies transport, deliveries, and tourism under a single search interface. Uber, present in Romania since February 2015, now also utilizes artificial intelligence through the ‘Voice Bookings’ feature to simplify the reservation process within its global ecosystem.<\/p>\n
What does the Uber and Expedia partnership offer?<\/strong><\/p>\n The partnership allows Uber users to book over 700,000 accommodations directly through the app, with bidirectional integration enabling Uber ride bookings within the Expedia app starting in June.<\/p>\n What new features is Uber launching alongside this partnership?<\/strong><\/p>\n Uber is introducing ‘Travel Mode’ for personalized hotel recommendations, ‘Shop for Me’ for personal shopping services, and ‘Eats for the Way’ for ordering snacks during Uber Black rides.<\/p>\n How is Uber pivoting its core business model?<\/strong><\/p>\n Uber is investing over EUR 8.59 billion in autonomous vehicle technologies and acquisitions to transition from a traditional gig economy model to a self-driving robotaxi fleet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Uber and Expedia Group have entered into a strategic partnership that transforms the ride-sharing platform into a travel hub, offering users access to over 700,000 accommodation units. The initiative, previously reported by Profit.ro, marks an essential stage in diversifying Uber’s services, while the company recalibrates its business model through multi-billion euro investments in autonomous technologies…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":126017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2858],"tags":[5464],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-126106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tourism","tag-uber"],"article_style_override":"on","post-style":"style2","post_via":[{"title":"profit.ro | 14.05","post_source_url":"https:\/\/www.profit.ro"}],"post-top-image":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/turism-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126106"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=126106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}