Which accommodations are eligible?
The name suggests that it only concerns advertisements for hotels, but this is not the case. Holiday parks or vacation rentals may also be eligible.
Accommodations that are eligible to appear within Google Hotel Ads must meet a number of criteria.
- In essence, it must be a room where a guest can spend the night.
- The space has fixed walls and there are sanitary facilities.
- A reception must also be available that is open at normal operating times.
- It must be possible to book for 7 days or less.
Accommodations that do not qualify are, for example, camping places for a tent.
The history of Google Hotel Ads
Since the rise of Google, people have been using its website to search for hotels. As a hotel, you could try to achieve a high ranking on Google on your own. However, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) quickly surfaced, directing visitors to their own platforms where hotel accommodation could be booked. Parties such as Booking.com and Expedia managed to build up a very successful business based on that approach.
The OTAs advertised (and are still advertising) a lot on Google. For Google, the advertising revenues from OTAs are an attractive source of income. The OTAs ranked among Google’s largest advertisers worldwide. However, Google also calculated that it only managed to retain a small part of the revenues in the entire hotel booking chain for itself.
That’s why Google has been studying and experimenting since 2010 how hotels can be shown on Google in a different way. In 2010, this process started with an integration within Google Maps, enabling you to search for hotel prices in Google Maps using Google’s Hotel Finder.
Hotels were also given the opportunity to position themselves on Google using what we now call Google My Business. Subsequently, the Google Hotel Center was created. This environment enabled hotel owners to manage their hotels and OTAs to manage their offering, as well as create ads for Google.
The most recent development is the transfer of hotel advertising to the Google Ads environment. This is the advertising environment where advertisers can create text ads as well, and it’s also the environment that is familiar ground to many online marketers and marketing agencies. The management of the accommodations remains part of the Hotel Ad Center. In addition, Google My Business remains an important element and also the environment where extra information about a hotel can be registered. Moreover, it’s the environment where you can manage reviews coming in through Google.
How does it work
Google Hotel Ads are advertisements specifically for hoteliers, holiday parcs, vacation rentals and Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). These type of ads display the availability and rates in Google Search, Maps and the Assistant.
When you search in Google for a hotel, camping or holiday resort, there is a good chance that you will be able to book a stay and compare prices between the organic results or under the Google My Business Listing.
‘Google hotel ads have higher conversion rates and lower costs per conversion than most other traffic sources’
Benefits
- Reach more customers by showing availability and prices through Google Hotel Ads, when travelers are actively looking for a stay in a specific region.
- Your ad will only be shown when there is availability on the desired arrival and departure date. As a result, we often see higher conversion rates and lower costs per conversion than most other traffic sources.
- Send customers to the provider’s website to book directly or have them book on Google.
- Pay only when someone clicks on the ad or, performance based, when someone books a stay.
