Booking Is on the Road to Becoming a Full-Service Online Travel Agency
Photo Credit: Booking.com CEO Gillian Tans. Booking.com has been testing expansion into products beyond hotel reservations. Skift
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Booking.com keeps hinting that it intends to become a full-service travel agency. But these products are often less profitable than hotels. So it risks a bumpy ride. No wonder it is considering revamping its rewards program and building a chatbot to help with merchandising.
Online travel giant Booking.com has been testing ways to expand beyond its traditional specialty in hotel bookings.
In recent months, it has been experimenting with adding flight-hotel packages, airport taxis, and other services. It is also exploring a revamp of its loyalty program.
Some users have seen a test of a flight-plus-hotel feature — sometimes with an optional rental car and airport transfer add-on — across multiple language versions of its platform. The feature is being tested in places such as the U.S., France, Poland, and Turkey.
The tab we've seen is labeled "Flight + Hotel," "Vacations," or "Packages," depending on the test.
In March, Booking.com has been sourcing packages for its U.S. audience from its Priceline.com sister brand.
For a few months, it had been getting invenotry via the intermediary LastMinute for users based in the UK and Europe. The latter move enabled Booking to offload responsibility for complying with European and UK regulations abo
