Uber lets Hilton take advantage of its most-frequented destination data as part of travel partnership
Hilton has teamed up with Uber to provide travel perks to guests staying at one of its hotels or resorts.
A feature within Hilton’s guest-loyalty app ‘HHonors’ called ‘Local Scene’ will give users the chance to see the top restaurants and bars in 20 US cities based upon drop-off and pick-up popularity with Uber riders, marking the first time the app is allowing another company to leverage its most-frequented destinations data.
Hilton guests around the world can also set up ‘ride reminders’ once they book their stay, which will prompt users to request an Uber to and from their hotel. The Hilton app will store the hotel’s address to make the experience easier for travelers and those who sign up for Uber will get $20 off of their first ride.
While the partnership marks the first time Uber has let another company use its ridership data to provide local recommendations, the car service app has partnered with other travel companies in the past, including Hyatt and United, to offer benefits.
Earlier this year, it paired up with Starwood’s preferred guest loyalty program to give travelers a point for every dollar they spent on Uber, with more points offered when they were using the service while staying at a Starwood property.
John diOrio, head of travel partnerships at Uber, told The Drum that the company has every aspiration to take Hilton’s ‘local scene’ feature beyond US cities and make it into a global footprint since “it’s powerful data and our riders really have their pulse on their cities.”
Yet he said that while travel is a very important category for Uber, the app doesn’t plan to rely on partnerships to keep its momentum up.
“Uber always strives to be the best, most seamless reliable experience independent of any partnership,” he said.
He said the company chose to collaborate with Hilton for this particular initiative since “they are very global first and mindful of technology and innovation.”
He also revealed that Uber would soon announce other partnerships of a similar vein.