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Lastminute.com.au will begin a phased closure from 2 June 2026. Image: lastminute.com.au<\/p>\n
The Australian arm of travel booking platform lastminute.com is shutting down after more than 25 years.<\/p>\n
The company, which is now part of the US-based Expedia Group, told Australian customers this week that it would be closing down from 2 June 2026.<\/p>\n
Lastminute.com.au launched in 2000 as an Australian version of the popular site, which was originally founded in the UK.<\/p>\n
It offers discount deals on hotels, flights, and other holiday services at the last minute, as the name suggests.<\/p>\n
The company has not offered any detail on why the platform is shutting down.<\/p>\n
In a statement to The Daily Telegraph, a spokesperson for lastminute.com.au said, \u201cWe regularly review our products, solutions and portfolio of brands to continue improving our travellers\u2019 experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phased shutdown<\/p>\n
In an email to customers, the company directed those seeking to book a holiday after this date to Expedia.<\/p>\n
The shuttering will take a phased approach.<\/p>\n
From 2 June, the lastminute.com.au website and app will not be available to make new bookings, but all existing bookings made through it will remain, the company said.<\/p>\n
Until 15 May, users can continue to book hotels, flights, care hire, packages, and activities on the platform for the coming nine months.<\/p>\n
After 15 May, users will only be able to make travel bookings for trips that will be completed by 1 November.<\/p>\n
Then from 2 June, all new booking activity will be redirected to Expedia.<\/p>\n
After this time, lastminute.com.au users will still be able to modify or cancel existing reservations, and access their Trips page on the platform.<\/p>\n
Once these trips are completed, access to user accounts will be shut down and all booking history will be inaccessible.<\/p>\n
Aussie site survives 25 years<\/p>\n
The Australian site was founded over 25 years ago as a joint venture between the UK version and Australian travel website travel.com.au.<\/p>\n
In July 2007 the UK firm\u2019s portion of the company was bought by the Australian site, which took full ownership of it.<\/p>\n
The following year, Brisbane-based Wotif Group purchased the whole company, and in 2014, Wotif was itself bought by Expedia for $703 million.<\/p>\n
Expedia Group owns Expedia, Wotif, Travago, hotels.com, Travelocity, and CheapTickets, among others.<\/p>\n
It is publicly listed on the NASDAQ with a market capitalisation of $43 billion ($US31 billion), and operates in more than 70 countries.<\/p>\n