By Craig Karmin
Amazon.com Inc. launched a new hotel-booking service for three
major metros areas on Monday, trying to entice shoppers who might
be browsing for books or music to reserve a hotel stay.
The new platform, called Amazon Destinations, lists hotels, inns
and bed-and-breakfast spots in the Northeast, southern California
and the Pacific Northwest.
About 150 properties are posting rooms on the Amazon site,
according to a person familiar with the matter. The listings mainly
consist of smaller, independent properties and hotel operators,
although there are a few branded hotels, such as the Best Western
Plus Royal Oak Hotel in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Amazon has been experimenting with hotel bookings since 2012,
when it began posting up to 100 deeply discounted hotel deals
around the U.S. at any given time. The listings were mostly from
hoteliers looking to fill excess inventory.
The new service allows hotel owners more flexibility in terms of
price, including listing rooms at regular rates, not just package
deals or other deep discounts. The hotels also are featured more
prominently on their own Amazon page, rather than being mixed in
with the site's various other travel deals.
Amazon has been low-key about the launch. The site went live
shortly before midnight Seattle time on Monday, and Amazon didn't
prepare a formal news release.
Analysts say the move reflects Amazon's growing interest in the
lucrative travel market.
In 2014, the travel and tourism industry generated $458 billion
in the U.S. alone, according to the World Travel & Tourism
Council.
The two biggest online travel agents, Expedia Inc. and
Booking.com, a unit of Priceline Group Inc., have become global
players. Booking.com says it lists about 590,000 hotels and other
accommodations, while Expedia says it has 435,000 properties in its
site.
The online travel industry has been consolidating to these two
major players. Expedia in February announced it was acquiring
Orbitz Worldwide Inc. for about $1.3 billion.
Amazon, by contrast, is a bit player in the hotel-reservation
market. But some hotel owners suggested that with its heavy user
traffic, the online retail giant would have certain advantages if
it chose to scale up quickly.
"Amazon changes the game a lot," said Bashar Wali, president of
boutique hotel operator Provenance Hotels, which is listing rooms
on Amazon for seven of its properties. "It has an intimate
knowledge of its customer's spending habits and preferences. That
could allow us to collaborate with them on special offers that
could be well-targeted."
Amazon spokesman Tom Cook declined to say what Amazon was
charging the hotel owners for rooms booked through its service, but
he said it would be competitive with the major online travel
agents. Those services typically charge commissions between 10% and
25%.
Mr. Cook said the site's main appeal would be to locals from
these areas who were looking for short getaways, an area Amazon
believes has been underserved by other hotel sites.
"These are all handpicked properties that have been visited by
someone at Amazon to make sure they meet our quality," he said.
Write to Craig Karmin at craig.karmin@wsj.com
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