Uber is now in the hotel business, thanks in part to artificial intelligence

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 transporting passengers and even deeper into the lives of its users.

Uber announced the new hotel booking feature on Wednesday during its annual product-rich Go-Get event in New York City. At launch, Uber customers will have access to more than 700,000 hotels around the world through a partnership with Expedia Group, the travel company that Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has led for 12 years.

Uber said vacation rental inventory from startup Vrbo will be added to the app later this year.

In an effort to sell more customers on the Uber One subscription, Uber said members will get a 20% discount on a rotating list of 10,000 hotels when they book through the app. Members will also receive 10% Uber credit on all bookings.

“We are no longer just a travel app, or even two apps, or [a] “A suite of apps for both trips and meals,” Khosrowshahi said during the company event.

“Uber is now an app for everything, where you can go, you can get there, and now you can travel,” he said.

Hotel reservations, a new AI-powered voice booking feature, and a large-scale search tool are among a host of new products unveiled Wednesday that have gone from concept to in-app launch in a matter of months thanks to agent AI tools like Cursor, Praveen Nepali Naga, Uber’s chief technology officer, told TechCrunch.

“What we have seen in the last few months is a fundamental reset, a new way of building software,” Naga said, adding that this shift began late last year with the emergence of agentic AI.

A feature like hotel reservations would have taken at least a year to bring to market — a long process that includes initial development, building it, then testing and debugging before launching it to customers, Naga said. This timeframe has been cut in half, and he now expects that as more engineers adopt these AI workflows, they will move faster.

“Our problem in general at Uber is not a lack of ideas; there are a lot of things we want to build,” he said. “It’s always the problem, we don’t have enough time or resources to build these things.”

During the Go-Get event, Uber also launched Travel Mode, which gives users a guide covering tourist hotspots, local favorites and other useful information directly related to the place they are visiting. Uber has expanded Travel Mode to include its Uber Eats delivery product as well by adding a “Room Service” hub 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 car when it arrives.