Amazon will attempt to break into the travel category in January 2015, starting with offering booking for independent hotels and resorts, according to a report on Thursday.
Skift cites unnamed representatives of three hotels who say Amazon Travel is coming on Jan. 1; the new entry will “feature a curated selection of hotels within a few hours’ drive from New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle.”
Participating hotels and resorts would pay Amazon the industry standard 15% commission rate, according to the report.
Amazon would potentially be a big player in online booking Amazon would potentially be a big player in online booking; the largest online booking sites currently are Booking.com and Expedia. Google began offering flight search in 2013, but does not offer bookings through its search.
Expedia began as a unit of Microsoft, which the company spun off in 1999.
In 2013, online travel agents had total bookings of $278 billion, according to Euromonitor, a market-research firm.
Travel would mark another new business category for Amazon, which has branched out into groceries, wine and cloud services over recent years.
Source – mashable