The Australian arm of travel booking platform lastminute.com is shutting down after more than 25 years.
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.
Lastminute.com.au launched in 2000 as an Australian version of the popular site, which was originally founded in the UK.
It offers discount deals on hotels, flights, and other holiday services at the last minute, as the name suggests.
The company has not offered any detail on why the platform is shutting down.
In a statement to The Daily Telegraph, a spokesperson for lastminute.com.au said, “We regularly review our products, solutions and portfolio of brands to continue improving our travellers’ experiences.”
Phased shutdown
In an email to customers, the company directed those seeking to book a holiday after this date to Expedia.
The shuttering will take a phased approach.
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.
Until 15 May, users can continue to book hotels, flights, care hire, packages, and activities on the platform for the coming nine months.
After 15 May, users will only be able to make travel bookings for trips that will be completed by 1 November.
Then from 2 June, all new booking activity will be redirected to Expedia.
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.
Once these trips are completed, access to user accounts will be shut down and all booking history will be inaccessible.
Aussie site survives 25 years
The Australian site was founded over 25 years ago as a joint venture between the UK version and Australian travel website travel.com.au.
In July 2007 the UK firm’s portion of the company was bought by the Australian site, which took full ownership of it.
The following year, Brisbane-based Wotif Group purchased the whole company, and in 2014, Wotif was itself bought by Expedia for $703 million.
Expedia Group owns Expedia, Wotif, Travago, hotels.com, Travelocity, and CheapTickets, among others.
It is publicly listed on the NASDAQ with a market capitalisation of $43 billion ($US31 billion), and operates in more than 70 countries.
News of lastminute.com.au’s closure comes in the same week that its rival Booking.com advised some users of a data breach that may have impacted “anything” they had shared with accommodation providers.
