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Uber customers in the United States can now book hotels directly through the app, one of several new features announced Wednesday that pushes far beyond the company\u2019s original ride-hailing purpose and even deeper into its users\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n
Uber announced the new hotel-booking feature on Wednesday during its product-heavy annual 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.<\/p>\n
Uber said vacation rental inventory from startup Vrbo will be added to the app later this year. <\/p>\n And in a pitch to sell more customers on its Uber One subscription, Uber said members will get 20% discounts on a rolling list of 10,000 hotels when booked through the app. Members will also receive 10% back in Uber Credits on all bookings.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re no longer just an app for rides, or even two apps, or [a] family of apps for both rides and eats,\u201d Khosrowshahi said during the company\u2019s event.<\/p>\n \u201cUber is now an app for everything, where you can go, you can get, and now you can travel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The hotel bookings, a new AI-powered voice-bookings feature, and a widespread search tool are among a handful of new products unveiled Wednesday that went from idea to launching in the app within months thanks to agentic AI tools like Cursor, Uber chief technology officer Praveen Neppalli Naga told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we have seen the last few months is a fundamental reset, a new way of building software,\u201d Naga said, adding that this shift began late last year with the emergence of agentic AI.<\/p>\n Naga said a feature like the hotel bookings would have taken at least a year to bring to market \u2014 a lengthy process that includes the initial development, building it, and then testing and debugging before launching it to customers. That timeframe has been cut in half, and he expects now that more engineers have adopted these agentic AI workflows, they will move even faster.<\/p>\n \u201cOur problems generally at Uber, it\u2019s not the problem of not having ideas; there\u2019s so many things we want to build,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just always the problem of, we don\u2019t have enough time or resourcing to build these things.\u201d<\/p>\n During its Go-Get event, Uber also launched travel mode, which gives users a guide covering tourist hotspots, local favorites, and other helpful information directly related to where they\u2019re visiting. Uber extended the travel mode to its Uber Eats delivery product as well by adding a \u201croom service\u201d hub that lists commonly forgotten items. This feature will eventually include curated dining recommendations and the option to book a table through OpenTable.<\/p>\n The company is also rolling out a feature called \u201cEats for the Way,\u201d which allows customers who have reserved an Uber Black to also order a drink or snack that will be in the vehicle when it arrives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n