Grab Holdings will introduce a hotel booking service called GrabStays within its app in Singapore later this month, marking a significant expansion into travel. The launch comes through an exclusive partnership with Nuitée, a travel technology company that will provide the underlying infrastructure for the new feature.
The move follows Grab's first-quarter earnings report, which showed revenue rising 24% year-over-year to $955 million, surpassing analyst estimates of $921.1 million compiled by LSEG. This stronger financial performance gives the company room to experiment with new services aimed at boosting user engagement without building its own travel platform from scratch.
GrabStays allows users to search, book, and confirm hotel reservations entirely within the Grab app, eliminating the need to visit external websites. Travelers can earn GrabCoins on bookings and interact with an AI-powered chatbot for details on amenities, locations, or personal preferences. The service is part of Grab's broader "Everyday Guide" strategy announced in April, which includes travel reminders and airport guidance.
Paul-Eric Licari, regional head of group business development at Grab, said the service aims to make travel across Southeast Asia "more frictionless," noting that about 200 million people pass through the region's airports annually. Med Benmansour, founder and CEO of Nuitée, described the partnership as a shift toward offering travel "as infrastructure" rather than simply a product.
The hotel booking space is increasingly competitive among ride-hailing platforms. Last month, Uber Technologies announced plans to roll out hotel bookings in the U.S. through a partnership with Expedia Group, highlighting travel as the next frontier in the superapp model where a single platform covers multiple services.
Financial terms of the Nuitée partnership were not disclosed, and Grab has not set a specific revenue target for the new service. Hotel bookings are not yet counted among Grab's main business segments, and the immediate benefit may be increased user engagement rather than a significant new revenue stream.
Ride-hailing and food delivery remain the core of Grab's business. In the first quarter, deliveries revenue jumped 23% to $510 million, while mobility revenue rose 19% to $337 million. The company is also pushing beyond its core Southeast Asian markets; in March, it agreed to acquire Delivery Hero's foodpanda operations in Taiwan for $600 million in cash, pending regulatory approval expected in the second half of 2026.
Grab shares slipped 0.9% to $3.685 on Nasdaq on Monday, reflecting investor caution about the impact of new services, regulatory pressures, and the cost of retaining users and drivers. The stock has shown tepid action, suggesting ongoing questions about the company's ability to drive revenue growth from hotel bookings without undermining its core businesses.
