It’s no secret that Google has played a significant role in the hospitality industry when it comes to online searches and generating direct bookings vs indirect bookings via OTAs.
Online travelers often turn to Google when researching hotels, resulting in millions of hotel search queries each day. With so many eyes on these search engine results, it’s important for hoteliers to be aware of Google’s new hotel advertising product.
Looking to compete with other hotel booking sites, Google quietly released its own hotel booking site on March 8th. On Google Hotel Search, online travelers can search for hotels by price, location, ratings, view hotel details and photos, as well as book a room.
For hoteliers looking to keep their share of direct bookings, Google Hotel Ads should be a priority sooner rather than later. Google Hotel Ads display your hotel availability and rates on Google Search, Maps, and the Assistant.
Hotel properties can connect their existing system to show latest rates and availability or manually manage rates, room types, and availability to be shared on Google. These campaigns work similar to a typical paid search campaign.
In order to use this tool you’ll need to create a Google Hotel Center account to send and manage hotel rates and availability displayed across Google. From there you would connect prices and availability to your ads by linking your Hotel Center account to a Google Ads account. Advertising your hotel can then begin by setting campaign parameters such as budget and duration. Then, once the ads run, you are able to review reports in Google Ads.
Not even a month after the release of their Hotel Search site, Google is already teasing an “engagement rewards” program. Although the program is still in the works, the idea is that the program will help companies to attract users, engage them, and increase conversions. The continued advances to Google Hotel Search are bound to shake things up for the hotel industry.
For more on Google’s new hotel updates, check out our blog Forget OTAs – Hotelier’s Biggest Competitor for Direct Bookings is Google.
Questions about the new Google Hotel Ads? Want to know how Google’s enhancements will affect your property’s website? Ask the experts at Vizergy.
