Hotels can now display rate and availability without taking part in Google PPC
For long, Google has remained the Elephant in the Room for the hotel industry. In the last five years, the search -engine giant has consolidated its place as the leader in the meta search, now accounting for over 57% all metasearch bookings.
It is the first place to go for many people when they start their search. Google has now made it free for hotel owners and travel agencies to list their properties on Google Search.
When a potential booker selects a hotel from the search option, in the booking module, the overview section is now showing four paid listings under the Featured options and two organic search results. Clicking on the Prices Tab, the user would be able to see all four paid listings along with all search results.
This section is now showing booking links from unpaid listings as shown in the organic search by hotels and travel companies.
This is a major opportunity for hotels. Hotel booking links have always been offered via Google Hotel Ads, which acts like a metasearch channel displaying real-time pricing and availability for hotels for specific dates of travel. With this new development, this barrier is removed and gives hotels a chance to display their direct rates and booking links without worrying about metasearch budget.
This opportunity is available for all the hotels through their Hotel Center account. Hotels which are already taking part in Google’s Hotel Prices API and Hotel Ads do not need to take any action and will be shown in All Options based on the organic search ranking.
The ranking of the organic search results will be based on an algorithm that looks at non-commercial factors, and pricing accuracy will be ensured through new tools and processes as well as using reliable data sources.
Google has a list of integrated partners including RateTiger through which hotels can feed data sources for booking links. If you are interested in displaying your rates on Google Hotel Ads, contact us today on marketing@erevmax.com