After completely disrupting the taxi industry, Uber may well become a threat to OTAs. The popular hail-riding platform has patented a travel booking service that seems to signal its entry into the OTA business.
In the patent application for Uber Travel, the company says it aims to provide a perfectly timed and seamless end-to-end trip, including the booking of flights, ground transport and accommodation. The system would also monitor flight and vehicle delays, and alert the appropriate airline and hotel systems, re-accommodating the traveller when necessary.
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Uber has only just registered the patent for its new service but, Russell Jarvis, spokesperson for Travelstart, says if Uber goes live with its new offering, the company will be in a good position to threaten the industry as it is already known by many users, and has built an audience across multiple countries that trusts and loves Uber.
“The size of the threat they pose to the industry at large will depend largely on where they get their inventory from. They might just end up being another ‘super-affiliate’ if they can't implement an integration where they control the entire, or many parts of, the supply chain. Also, just because a company has a reputation for being a disruptor in a niche does not mean they will be successful when they try to disrupt other niches – even Google hasn't quite been able to crack travel – it's a complex industry with many touch-points,” says Jarvis.
Uber’s potential entry into the OTA space, could well see more OTAs move to address the local transport gap in their itineraries. Jarvis says there is definitely room for innovation and competition in this space, which could start happening via partnerships and acquisitions.
OTAs who rely solely on the traditional OTA business models are in danger of thinking that doing the same thing will work year in and year out, agrees Rian Bornman, MD of FlightSite.
Whether or not Uber will disrupt the travel industry as significantly as they have the taxi industry remains to be seen. “Currently the travel industry is a multifaceted chain affected by many variables and whether or not it's something that can be ‘uberised’ as easily as one facet of a trip (hailing a taxi) is yet to be seen.”
