Uber customers in the United States can now book hotels directly through the app, one of several new features announced Wednesday that go far beyond the company’s original purpose of offering ride-sharing and delve even deeper into the lives of its users.
Uber announced the new hotel booking feature Wednesday during its annual product-packed Go-Get event in New York City. At launch, Uber customers will have access to more than 700,000 hotels worldwide through a partnership with Expedia Group, the travel company that Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi led for 12 years.
Uber said startup Vrbo’s vacation rental inventory will be added to the app later this year.
And in a bid to sell more customers to its Uber One subscription, Uber said members will get 20% discounts on a rolling list of 10,000 hotels when they book through the app. Members will also receive 10% back in Uber credits on all bookings.
“We are no longer just one ride app, or even two apps, or (a) family of ride and dining apps,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during the company’s event.
“Uber is now an app for everything, where you can go, you can arrive and now you can travel,” he said.
Hotel reservations, a new AI-powered voice booking feature, and a widespread search tool are among a handful of new products unveiled Wednesday that went from idea to in-app launch within months thanks to AI tools like Cursor, Uber Chief Technology Officer Praveen Neppalli Naga told TechCrunch.
“What we’ve seen in recent months is a fundamental reset, a new way of creating software,” Naga said, adding that this shift began late last year with the emergence of agent AI.
Naga said a feature like hotel reservations would have taken at least a year — a long process that includes initial development, construction, and then testing and debugging before releasing it to customers. That period has been reduced by half; and hopes that now that more engineers have adopted these AI agent workflows, they will move even faster.
“Overall, our problems at Uber are not the problem of not having ideas; there are so many things we want to build,” he said. “It’s always the problem that we don’t have enough time or resources to build these things.”
During its Go-Get event, Uber also launched Travel Mode, which provides users with a guide covering tourist spots, local favorites, and other useful information directly related to the place they are visiting. Uber also expanded the ride mode to its Uber Eats delivery product, adding a “room service” center that lists commonly forgotten items. This feature will eventually include curated dining recommendations and the option to reserve a table through OpenTable.
The company is also rolling out a feature called “Eats for the Way,” which allows customers who have booked an Uber Black to also order a drink or snack that will be in the vehicle when it arrives.
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