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Today I learned you can book hotels through Uber and earn 10% back as Uber Cash with Uber One. In essence, Uber’s partnership with Expedia brings back something similar to what Hotels.com used to offer: a 10% return on every booking.
Uber is also offering exclusive rates for bookings through them, and you must be an Uber One member to receive rewards. So let’s see if this is actually worth it.
Book Hotels with Uber
The whole thing works in a very straightforward way. You open the Uber app, tap “Services” on the bottom row, then tap “Hotels”. You can search by entering the city, date, and the number of adults and children, and Uber will pull hotels from its participating catalogue of 700,000+.
With Expedia powering the hotel inventory, I’d expect very significant overlap between the two platforms. Compared to booking directly with Expedia, earning Uber’s 10% cash back is way better than One Key rewards.
Just running a basic search in New York, I found the Hyatt Grand Central New York for $599.27 a night, and it returns $59.93 in Uber One credits. I’m pleasantly surprised to see the 10% cash back extend to the full price of the room, including all taxes and fees.
For this property, Uber displays a “You’re saving $137.37” banner, with the $599.27 hotel price next to a crossed-out price of $736.74, indicating that Uber is offering a lower rate. However, that doesn’t mean you’re actually saving $137.37 compared to booking directly with Hyatt.
On the Hyatt website, the “members save more” rate is $588.28 per night, while all other rates are significantly higher than Uber’s.
We can compare another example with the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge. Uber is selling the base room as non-refundable for $381.31.
Marriott is selling the “member rate prepay non-refundable non-changeable” for $374.15. Again, Uber is a little bit higher, but you do get $38.13 back in Uber One credits.
Uber advertises exclusive rates up to 20% off hotel bookings, but I’ve yet to come across one myself.
Should You Book Hotels with Uber?
Booking Through a Third Party
On the surface, booking with Uber looks like a great deal because you earn 10% back as Uber Cash. However, savvy travellers know that booking directly with the property offers extra benefits: you’re eligible for Elite benefits, you earn qualifying night credits, and you accrue loyalty points with the hotel brand.
In the case of Hyatt or Marriott, you also wouldn’t earn hotel multiplier bonuses on your co-branded credit card.
All the hotels I clicked on in the Uber app take payment in-app at the time of booking, even if they are fully refundable. Note that when booking direct, flexible and refundable bookings typically don’t require payment until you arrive at the property.
Should you have issues with the reservation, you’ll also have another party between you and the hotel when trying to resolve them.
However, for casual travellers who would be using Booking.com or Expedia anyway, Uber Hotels puts up a competitive offering.
Uber vs. Other OTAs
To be fair to Uber, many of the above problems occur when you book any hotel via any third party. And, just like with third-party bookings overall, it makes the most sense for hotels that aren’t part of any chain, where you wouldn’t earn loyalty points anyway. In these cases, my take is I’d rather earn 10% cash back via Uber credits than any other third-party loyalty points. I use Uber for rideshare and delivery regularly, so Uber Cash is effectively as good as cash to me. If you rarely use Uber, I’d obviously discount its value accordingly.
Regarding this Uber partnership, Anshul said, “The ‘earning some form of cashback on hotel booking’ space is so crowded now, difficult to know what’s best without searching on several portals together,” and I tend to agree. Between Rove, Uber, Rakuten, Capital One Shopping, and more, maximizing hotel bookings increasingly means comparing not just room rates, but the value of whatever rebate or currency each portal offers.
Then there’s Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts (FHR) credits, Chase The Edit credits, Expedia for TD in order to redeem TD points, and probably even more that’s not coming to mind right now.
On top of adding hotels, Uber has been aggressively moving into the travel space with rental cars, dining reservations (via OpenTable), and making Uber One international when it comes to earning Uber One credits. As part of the partnership, TPG reports that Expedia will eventually integrate Uber rides into its app.
Takeaway
Uber Hotels is an interesting addition to an already crowded field of hotel booking platforms. Earning 10% back as Uber Cash is a strong return, especially since it applies to the full booking price, including taxes and fees, and Uber’s rates appear reasonably competitive with booking directly.
That doesn’t mean I’d start booking Marriott, Hyatt, or other major hotel chains through Uber. Giving up Elite benefits, qualifying nights, hotel points, and credit card-elevated category earnings can easily outweigh the 10% return. But for casual travellers who aren’t chasing Elite status or hotel points, earning 10% back as Uber Cash could make a lot of sense.
Where Uber Hotels makes the most sense is for independent properties where there isn’t a loyalty program to give up. If the price is competitive, I’d happily take 10% back as Uber Cash over most other OTA rewards. Just don’t assume the advertised discount makes Uber cheapest: compare the final price against booking directly and through any other portal you’re considering.
