Uber adds hotel booking with Expedia in-app, doubles down on Uber One perks, and expands toward restaurants, rentals, and more.
Uber is making a more urgent pitch to become the app people use for nearly everything, and this time the strategy comes with concrete new booking options.
For years, the ride-hailing company has talked publicly about turning itself into a so-called super app.. That ambition has now gained momentum as competition in adjacent services heats up. including the growing presence of autonomous vehicle services in major markets.. Uber’s message appears to be simple: if it can steadily expand beyond transportation. the company can create more reasons to stay inside the Uber experience instead of bouncing between apps.
Two weeks ago, Uber used its annual GO-GET product event in New York to unveil a major step toward that goal. In the U.S., users can now book hotels directly inside the Uber app through a partnership with Expedia Group, with access to more than 700,000 hotel properties worldwide.
Uber also positioned the hotel launch around its membership program.. Uber One subscribers, at $9.99 per month, receive 20% off a rotating selection of 10,000 hotels and get 10% back in credits.. It’s a move aimed at turning everyday travel planning into something that feels financially advantageous to bundle with ride bookings.
Hotels are only the first piece of the broader plan.. Vacation rentals through Vrbo are expected to arrive later this year. while restaurant reservations via OpenTable are planned as the next expansion step.. Together. these additions outline an effort to cover multiple trip moments—lodging. dining. and stays—without requiring users to leave the Uber ecosystem.
Uber is also testing a different kind of commerce expansion with a feature called “Shop for Me. ” which lets people order from stores that are not currently listed on Uber’s own delivery platform.. The capability signals that the company wants to use its app reach and logistics relationships to widen its retail footprint. even when the seller isn’t part of the familiar catalog.
Taken together, the announcements offer the clearest snapshot yet of an idea Uber has been trying to solidify since at least 2019: an app with massive daily usage could evolve into a default destination for travel and everyday needs.
Uber’s CTO, Praveen Neppalli Naga, has been laying out why Uber thinks the U.S.. version of a super app could finally work.. In remarks at TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC event in San Francisco. he pointed out that similar super app models have existed for years in India and Southeast Asia. but U.S.. attempts have often failed by simply adding services onto existing traffic rather than building a reason to remain.
Naga argued that what fits best is membership.. Each new category. he suggested. becomes another justification to keep paying for Uber One—especially when it can create a practical flow: take an Uber to the airport. book a ride to a hotel. then reserve a restaurant.. The logic is that bundling purchases into a single routine makes the platform feel less like a transportation tool and more like trip infrastructure.
While hotels are live, flights were not part of the initial rollout.. Naga said flights are still a possibility. but he also acknowledged that Uber’s earlier attempt at flight booking in Europe did not succeed.. His focus, he indicated, is to complete the hotel-related bet first before expanding farther.
Financial services also remain on the table, though the path is less defined.. Uber already offers a debit card for drivers in Mexico. and Naga did not provide specifics on whether consumer-facing financial products would go further or when.. Still. his “never say never” stance left room for banking and payments to become part of the long-term super app architecture.
Uber isn’t pursuing this alone. and rival strategies suggest the battle for “where users book” is becoming a direct competition for customer attention.. Airbnb. which is arguably most exposed to Uber’s hotel push. announced transportation plans in late March: a partnership with Welcome Pickups to provide airport transfers in 125 cities across Asia. Europe. and Latin America.. The deal is structured to keep travelers inside the Airbnb app rather than sending them to Uber.
In a different lane, Elon Musk has been positioning X toward an “everything app” concept similar to WeChat.. The company is reportedly nearing a long-stated goal with X Money. framed as a banking and payments platform inside the social network. expected to launch publicly soon.. X also claims 500 million monthly active users.
The bigger question for the industry is whether the American market can support more than a single “super app” style platform. or whether users will continue to prefer a patchwork of specialized apps.. WeChat’s success in China is often tied to the lack of equally strong alternatives, and the U.S.. market already offers dedicated apps for many of the services Uber wants to consolidate.
In this context, Uber’s decision to lean on its installed base becomes central.. The company is betting that it can persuade people to consolidate inside its app not by asking them to start over. but by offering a compelling reason to switch behavior—Uber One perks such as hotel discounts and credits. plus the friction-reducing advantage of staying in a platform where users already book rides.
There’s also a practical advantage in distribution.. Uber does not have to convince users to download a new app just to buy something like a hotel room.. The company already has a relationship with users that begins with mobility. and the question is whether that relationship can extend into booking decisions for lodging. dining. and shopping.
Recent business results suggest Uber Eats may strengthen that argument.. Uber’s latest earnings, reported days before, showed delivery revenue grew 34% year over year in the first quarter, reaching $5.07 billion.. The pace made it the fastest-growing part of the business, and it pulled close to mobility in gross bookings.
Even so, Wall Street appears to be waiting for clearer proof that the expansion can translate into durable growth. Uber’s stock was reported to be down about 8% from a year ago, indicating skepticism that the super app thesis will play out as hoped.
Uber counters with engagement and revenue contribution.. The company says 50 million people are paying for Uber One. and that those members account for roughly half of total bookings.. That means the membership pitch is not just a marketing slogan—it is also the company’s main lever for making additional categories feel worth adopting.
For Uber. the urgency is understandable: the longer it takes to make the app useful beyond rides. the more vulnerable it may become to companies that already own nearby trip moments.. The company’s current approach—hotels first. then rentals and restaurant reservations. plus experiments in commerce—looks designed to compress that timeline and build a habit-based customer flow before competitors can fully claim those decisions.
Uber One hotels Expedia partnership super app strategy Uber app bookings Vrbo rentals OpenTable reservations