The chain has launched a new hotel booking service

The world's largest online retailer by sales volume, Amazon.com, has launched the Amazon Destinations service, through which you can book a hotel, find a place to dine, and select attractions to see in the vicinity of the hotel. At the first stage, the project will operate in three major US cities and their surrounding areas: New York, Los Angeles and Seattle.

Now, when you go to Amazon.com in search of a book, movie or music, you can at the same time choose an interesting vacation option. The company has launched a new service, Amazon Destinations, through which you can find a room in one of the 150 hotels participating in the project. The list of hotels includes large ones, such as the Best Western Plus Royal Oak in California, but the majority are still small private hotels. All of these hotels are located in and around three major American cities: New York, Los Angeles and Seattle. They are designed primarily for residents of these cities who are looking for options for a short vacation. In addition to your hotel room, Amazon Destinations can help you find the right restaurant and local attractions.

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Amazon.com is no longer a newcomer to the hotel booking market. The company has had this service since 2012, but until now it was only possible to select last-minute tours at discounted prices through the online retailer. This service continues to this day, but now you can select options at standard rates, and the choice of hotels has become much wider. The tourism and travel market is growing every year. Thus, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, in 2014 in the United States alone, the volume of this market reached $458 billion. According to some hotel owners, thanks to the high traffic to the Amazon.com website, the company can achieve significant success in a new field. “Amazon is making a real difference,” Bashar Wali, president of Provenance Hotels, which is part of the Amazon Destinations project, told The Wall Street Journal. “This company understands the spending patterns and preferences of its customers. Thanks to this, we will be able to collaborate with her on special offers that will effectively reach our target audience.” Amazon.com spokesman Tom Cook declined to disclose the commission that Amazon charges hotels for rooms booked through its booking service, but he stressed that their service will compete with offers from leading online travel operators. And they usually charge from 10% to 25% for their services.

Alena Miklashevskaya

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