Amazon is reportedly the latest ecommerce giant planning to break into the online travel business.
An exclusive report by Skift cited unnamed contacts at three hotels who had been approached by Amazon, saying an accommodation booking service will be launched January 1.
To begin with, it will feature a curated list of properties ‘within a few hours drive’ of San Francisco, Seattle, New York and Los Angeles.
Amazon will take an industry standard 15% commission on bookings through Amazon Travel, and editorial content of local attractions will be displayed alongside featured hotels on its website.
The report says Amazon has selected potential hotel partners based on ratings of at least four stars and above on TripAdvisor and would limit the number of properties it features per destination.
It suggests Amazon will focus on independent hotels that do not have the online presence of major hotel groups.
It is likely to be an attraction for hotels due to its mega-marketing power, global reach and big data capabilities.
Amazon gets about 65 million visitors every month to its US website.
