Uber Runs Its Expedia-Powered Hotel Bookings at Break-Even and Gives the Margin to Members

A distribution channel that doesn't need to profit on the booking changes the price hotels compete against. Uber's CEO has now confirmed that this is how the company is running its hotel business.

Speaking at the Skift Global Forum in New York on 22 September, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the hotel bookings Uber launched in April through a partnership with Expedia run at break-even by design, according to Skift's report.

The economics

• No paid traffic. Uber doesn't buy customers from Google, so it can pass the margin on hotel bookings back to members.
• Member discounts. Uber One members get 10% off, rising to 20% at some properties.
• The membership base. Uber One has more than 50 million paid members. Khosrowshahi said they spend three times as much as non-members.

Skift frames this as a membership play: hotels are an entry point that deepens Uber One engagement rather than a standalone booking business.

Khosrowshahi called hotels part of a "generalized bet" on the direction of travel. "When you look at Uber, because of our position and because we operate in 70+ countries, we're delivering in 100+ countries, the traveler comes to us," he said.

What comes next

• Vrbo short-term rentals come to the Uber app later this year through the same Expedia integration.
• Flights stay on hold until Uber sees whether travelers will book hotels in an app built for on-demand use.

Khosrowshahi placed hotels in a longer pattern. Uber was 95% rideshare when he took over in 2017 and is now split roughly 50-50 between rides and delivery. He ran Expedia before joining Uber and still sits on its board.

Why it matters

Expedia gets another large, low-acquisition-cost demand source for its hotel and Vrbo supply. For hotels and rental hosts, it means Expedia inventory showing up at 10-20% member discounts in an app with 50 million-plus paying subscribers. How those discounts are funded, and whether they create rate-parity questions, is something supply partners will want to understand as Vrbo inventory joins later this year.