Earlier this year, Google announced an additional feature to the Google Business Profile for hotels and other accommodations. For over a year, the Google Business Profile featured partner links for hotel reservations to sites like Booking.com and Priceline, plus a link to the website for the hotel. This added feature allows people to search for availability and have the option to book directly at the hotel.
The direct booking feature is simple to setup and even easier for potential guests to use. For properties looking to fill up available space, it is well worth exploring.
Get Started with Google Business Profiles
To get started with the direct booking feature, the hotel needs to claim their business profile on Google Search or Maps. If you have not done this for your property yet, it is something every business owner should do. The Google Business Profile allows you to take control of your profile, adding relevant business information, hours, pictures, deals, and respond to the reviews being left.
In order to claim your business profile, do a search on Google for the business and then click the “Own this business?” link in the profile. Read more about the Google Business Profile to get started.
Add Hotel Rates
After you have the profile claimed, there will be another link in the profile to get started with managing your rates above the search for availability section.
Once you click it, you will be able to view the terms and conditions for the feature. The feature is also undergoing beta testing and is limited in what it can do for right now. For example, you can only set one base rate for one room type. Once guests click through on the direct booking link, they will be able to select a different room type, change the check-in date, etc.
Hotels will also be limited to only having dates be open or closed, no option to limit to dates that only allow arrivals, departures, or minimum stay lengths, and so forth. The feature is best used for dates when there is a lot of rooms still available.
When you first start entering the rates, you will be presented with a calendar for the current month. You can set rates/availability per day by clicking the Edit button, or do a bulk edit by selecting the button at the top.
As you fill out the rates, the Rate Coverage percentage at the top will change. Google would prefer you set rates for at least 365 days. You are able to set rates for several years in advance.
The important thing to remember is the rate is meant to be for your lowest best available rate. Having a lower rate than what is available is not advised. Having a rate that is meant for one of your upperclass rooms may not work as well as you would like, because the search results will be displaying the lowest available rates at the other websites. Potential guests are unlikely to click on the link to book directly at the hotel, if other sites are displaying rates $20+ lower than yours.
The next screen will help you setup the tax rate for your property. You can have multiple tax rates, and the rate can either include or exclude them. The tax breakdown will display before guests click through to book at your website. Again, it will be important to show accurate information to prevent the guests from having any rude surprises when they actually book.
The final step will confirm your booking engine. Google will scan your website to determine the booking engine based on the outgoing links. It identified the SynXis (Sabre) link immediately for one of my client hotels. After confirming the link, Google will then prepare the correct URL to use when a guest clicks on the official website link.
Test It
Once Google has confirmed the booking link, the direct booking link will be live. Run a quick search for some available dates and then again for some dates that are not available to confirm that the link is working. If the hotel is not available for booking, no links will display. Instead, Google will display the information about when the hotel is next available to reserve.
The previous step about confirming the booking engine on the website allows Google to prepare and use the correct URL scheme when the direct booking link is clicked. It will take the guest to the booking engine with the correct check-in/out dates and number of guests. It should allow for a quicker reservation capture, rather than a guest having to re-do a search they already ran.
There is nothing to say about this feature for now. As mentioned previously, it is still in beta, and there will likely be further enhancements as the year progresses in time for the high season in 2023.
If you need further assistance with the product, take a look at this Google website or contact me and I may be able to assist you.