Google’s Hotel Finder product has recently become available on a global scale and the company is beginning to display Google Hotel results in regular search engine results pages.
The move is welcome news for hotel marketers everywhere eager to tap into the full potential of Hotel Finder as a tool to drive guest bookings. A few new features have also been integrated into the product, such as a “Rooms” tab, which displays comprehensive information about hotel room types, including rates.
When it comes to Google 'Hotel Price Ads' and 'Promoted Hotel Ads,' it appears nothing has changed. The product still displays a link to the official hotel website alongside four ‘Hotel Price Ads’ per hotel - one of which takes centre stage as the prominent 'Promoted Hotel Ad'.
It’s not yet clear to what extent your resort will be able to profit from Google Hotel Finder. After all, your property’s four Hotel Price Ads are likely to be occupied by major online travel agencies and your central reservation system service provider directly supplies Google with Hotel Price Ads.
However, now that Hotel Finder is an official Google product, it shouldn’t be long before we start to hear more from the search giant by way of an “official guide” for hotel marketers. And it shouldn’t be long until we know for certain whether the product will live up to its hype as a valuable booking generator tool.
