How to Use Google to Capture the Most Bookings
Hotels might not have felt an earthquake when Google jumped into instant booking last year; in fact, many were so focused on massive OTA consolidation that Google instant booking may have appeared as barely a blip on the industry seismograph. However, a closer look at the state of online bookings shows that what Google Travel aims to do is reach travelers at every point of the booking pathway, and Book on Google (the hotel instant booking feature) is one among many ways in which hotels will need a presence in order to effectively compete for visibility and market share.
Consider:
1. A Google search shows paid ads in the above-the-fold results, followed by Google hotel listings. (Google Hotel Finder has been phased out, but Google continues to host meta-search in the search results and in Google Maps.
2. Below-the-fold is where the organic hotel results reside, which are increasingly challenging for hotels to achieve.
3. OTAs are paying Google for booking presence on their hotel interface. Simultaneously, Google is competing directly with the OTAs by offering instant booking to hotels.
4. While OTAs and big hotel brands have the budget and marketing power to appear prominently in any of the above scenarios, for small- and medium-size hotels, a Book on Google presence may be the most direct way to reach the traveler.
5. And either way, a presence across all of these categories is quickly becoming essential, because traveler behavior is changing. Travelers are searching in hundreds of “micro-moments” (as many as 400 for a single trip) on multiple devices across a variety of channels, according to Think With Google’s Four Mobile Moments Changing the Consumer Journey.
The bottom line is: hotels need help. Help parsing out why it matters, help understanding all the ways to reach travelers via Google, help knowing which ways are even feasible for hotels that don’t have a big brand name. These are all key to gaining the visibility necessary to get in front of travelers.
“All Things Google: A Guide for Hotels” will walk you through not only why Google still matters, but how hotels can go about effecting change in order to drive bookings, especially profitable direct bookings.
This E-Book includes information about:
1. Why reviews on Google matter and how you can influence them
2. How to achieve better organic rankings in the highly competitive search engine results
3. What hotels needs to know about ever changing Google Hotel Ads (especially the new hotel commission option)
4. How to appeal to travelers with Meta-Reviews on Google (especially on OTAs)
5. Information about Google Trip Planning, Google’s new mobile interface for travel
All Things Google: A Guide for Hotels is currently available for free download here.
