Grab launches in-app hotel and ticket-booking features for Singapore users

Grab has officially launched four new in-app features for its Singaporean users, furthering its goal of becoming the region’s “super app” of choice.

One of the new services, “Hotels,” is being rolled out to select users before a full release next month. It will allow users to book accommodation with hotel-listing site Agoda inside the Grab app. Listings from Agoda’s sister site Booking.com will also be made available in the near future, Singapore-based Grab said.

Photo credit: Grab

The launch of “Hotels” comes after last October’s US$200 million strategic investment in Grab by Booking Holdings, Agoda’s parent company. The following month, Grab announced a number of benefits, including discounted room rates, for platinum and gold members of its GrabRewards loyalty program when making reservations via Booking.com.

Another new feature unveiled by Grab is “Tickets,” which enables the on-demand app’s users to book movie and event tickets. Set to go live in June, the service is being offered in partnership with Indian startup BookMyShow, which was announced as a member of the first intake of Grab Ventures’ Velocity accelerator program last November.

The other two features launching for Singaporean Grab users are video-streaming in partnership with Hooq – first reported by Tech in Asia in January – and “Trip Planner,” which integrates real-time public transit information into the Grab app for multimodal, point-to-point journey planning. Trip Planner was initially trialed in the Greater Jakarta region last month, and is now being rolled out to other markets.

See: After 10x growth last year, food delivery will be Grab’s main battlefront in 2019

The integration of third-party services as in-app features has been made possible through Grab’s open API toolkit, GrabPlatform. “It enables us to expand into new verticals quicker than we can on our own [and] at the same time empowers our partners to scale their business with our reach and assets,” said Jerald Singh, Grab’s group head of product and design.

The company aims to have over 500 partners using GrabPlatform by the end of the year, he added. 

As previously reported, Grab is strengthening its “super app” credentials by merging its GrabFood food delivery service into its main app in Singapore, where it was previously only available as a standalone app. It was reported last week that users in the southeastern part of the city will get to test out the newly integrated service from the end of this month, with an nationwide launch beginning in May.

GrabFood will also be added to the main Grab app in Malaysia, where it had similarly been separate following the company’s acquisition of Uber’s regional business last year. GrabFood is already available as a tile within the main Grab app in the company’s other markets.