Amazon Destinations Will Be Shutting Down

In late April of this year, Amazon introduced “Destinations”, a hotel booking site that had been rumored for several months before its launch.

Amazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN) is seemingly leaving the travel business shortly after launching Amazon Destinations.

Initially, the service provided hotel rooms in New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles.

When you visit Amazon Destinations website now, you’re greeted with a message that says the company stopped selling hotel reservations on October 13. The site was already set up to collect user reviews about the hotels it was featuring, which could have made the service a competitor to other travel sites or local review sites like TripAdvisor, Expedia, or Yelp.

But the venture has evidently fallen short of expectations, leading Amazon’s top team to pull the plug on it this week. The closure was first spotted by The Seattle Times. The site’s arrival came about without much fanfare, and apparently it hasn’t seen the sort of attention Amazon was aiming for. The company had previously offered Amazon Local customers flash deals and discounts on hotel stays.

The concept was that the company collaborates with hotels while aiming at the unexploited area in the travel space for domestic leisure holidays. With the closing of its hotel booking service Amazon also announced that it would no longer offer discounts and deals through the Local app. Customers were told that they would have to take no action after the closing of the Destinations service as all bookings and reservations would be honored by the hotels. “If you have a reservation, your reservation is valid and will be honoured by the hotel”, the site states.