Grab, a leading app in Southeast Asia, on Friday announced the launch of its ‘Hotels’ booking service.
In a press release, the company said customers can book hotels and other accommodation from Agoda and soon, Booking.com directly from the Grab app, and enjoy special hotel offers when they book through Grab.
The company said its customers can access and easily compare prices across millions of places to stay, ranging from a wide choice of luxury and budget hotels to apartments, vacation homes, and family-run B&Bs.
“Our ‘Hotels’ service adds to the multiple benefits we already offer travellers, including the most comprehensive miles and travel loyalty programme for any O2O platform, discounts at lounges and F&B outlets at major airports in Southeast Asia, and exclusive Grab transport pick-up points at airports in Indonesia and the Philippines,” said Jerald Singh, Group Head of Product and Design, Grab, as quoted by The Nation.
According to Tech in Asia, the launch of “Hotels” comes after last October’s US$200 million strategic investment in Grab by Booking Holdings, Agoda’s parent company.
More features and benefits will be added to the ‘Hotels’ service throughout the year. Grab customers will get free travel personal accident and flight delay insurance with each hotel booking, as well as special ride offers.
In addition, customers will be able to pay with GrabPay, Grab’s cashless payment mode, and earn GrabReward points with each booking, which can be redeemed for more deals and discounts around other travel services, F&B, retail, entertainment and more.
Another new feature unveiled by Grab is “Tickets,” which enables the on-demand app’s users to book movie and event tickets. Set to go live in June, the service is being offered in partnership with Indian startup BookMyShow, which was announced as a member of the first intake of Grab Ventures’ Velocity accelerator program last November.
The other two features launching for Singaporean Grab users are video-streaming in partnership with Hooq – first reported by Tech in Asia in January – and “Trip Planner,” which integrates real-time public transit information into the Grab app for multimodal, point-to-point journey planning. Trip Planner was initially trialed in the Greater Jakarta region last month, and is now being rolled out to other markets.
