Uber could add hotels to app

Uber is considering adding hotels as part of the “super app” strategy devised by CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

According to the Financial Times the company is adding trains, coaches and flights this year as part of a trial in the UK market.

The idea being that by adding more products it would help encourage use of the company’s core ride-hailing business as well as brining in a cut from commission when customers book other forms of transport.

Jamie Heywood, Uber’s regional general manager for UK, northern and eastern Europe, said in an interview with the newspaper that hotel reservations could follow in 2023.

Why This Matters

The term “super app” has been used to describe a variety of companies e.g. China’s WeChat, that offer multiple services sometimes across different sectors. And there are plenty of tech brands that have ambitions in this space.

It’s a very difficult strategy to make work both from a usability point of view: can enough people be persuaded to use my app versus others, and from the financial side: are the margins good enough to warrant the extra complexity.

Given Uber's well-documented struggles to turn a profit over a number of years in its core business, it seems very optimistic to pursue such an ambitious strategy.