Amazon is shutting down its online hotel booking service

Published March 09, 2016

Amazon launched the service in April, hoping to sell close-to-home vacations, featuring destinations and hotels within a customer’s driving distance. (Amazon)

Amazon announced Wednesday that it is closing its hotel-booking service Amazon Destinations.

Bloomberg reports that the travel site had only been in operation for six months.

Amazon Destinations was introduced in April to try and get a slice of the $960 billion tourism market dominated by giants Expedia, Priceline and Airbnb. Amazon’s service included maps, deals on hotels and user reviews of restaurants in the area. The site listed locales near New York, Seattle and Los Angeles.

The Seattle company said that it stopped selling reservations on Tuesday and that customers who have already made reservations through Amazon Destinations will still have them honored by hotels.

In a statement to Bloomberg, Amazon said little on why its shuttering the service, only stating that it had “learned a lot.”

The company was handpicking independent hotels in the domestic leisure sector, hoping to sell close-to-home vacations, featuring destinations and hotels within a customer’s driving distance. The site focused on trips of one to three nights, and debuted with getaways near Seattle, Los Angeles and New York.

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