Amazon Abruptly Shuts Its Hotels Business After Stilted Efforts to Compete
Skift Take
It was telling that when the U.S. Department of Justice reviewed hotel competitors during its analysis of Expedia's acquisition of Orbitz Worldwide, the antitrust division cited TripAdvisor and Google as rising competitors but didn't mention Amazon.
Amazon, which in April moved beyond selling deeply discounted hotel rooms into a more well-rounded hotel-booking business, abruptly shut down its Amazon Destinations service entirely with no warning.
A notice on the site states: "Effective October 13, Amazon Destinations stopped selling reservations on travel.amazon.com and the Amazon Local app. If you have a reservation, your reservation is valid and will be honored by the hotel. No action is required on your part."
Even some Amazon sales representatives who worked with the hotel industry were blind-sided by the shutdow
