Amazon moving into hotels, travel business: reports

After its huge success, recommending the right product from its massive inventory and partner merchants' warehouses, the company was reportedly preparing to offer suggestions on lodging.

Under the new service, Amazon would combine a curated selection of hotels, hand-selected for ratings of four and five stars and vetted further against Amazon's own reviews of nearby attractions.

The news of the service, Amazon Travel, the title of the new web-based travel service, was revealed by travel news site Skift. Amazon Travel would go live on 1 January 2015, Skift reported quoting sources.

If the reports were true, Amazon would be entering new territory but given its customer base it could give tough competition to the likes of Travelocity and Priceline, according to commentators.

Amazon Travel, which would seek out hotels near world-class cities like New York and Los Angeles, would likely target independent hotels that did not have the same presence and marketing abilities as chains.