Google Hotel Ads: How You Can Take Advantage of it

What is Google Hotel Ads?

Google Hotel Ads works like a metasearch : it compares search results from several databases based on the parameters entered by the user at that moment.

So, when we talk about hotel and accommodation metasearch, we are talking about systems that can give users search results based on price, location, date, type of property, or other filters.

Being Google’s metasearch engine, Google Hotel Ads compares the prices on accommodation websites with the rates on the OTAs, promoting the selected accommodations according to the user’s preferred parameters. The results are shown in the right-hand column, at the top of the results page on Google Maps, based on the user’s location or in other Google products.

It differs from the Google free booking link because the organic results display the property. At the same time, Google Hotel Ads shows the property in the ‘Sponsored Options’ section.

What are the advantages of using Google Hotel Ads?

The benefits of Google Hotel Ads are for both hotels and customers:

• Increased online visibility
• Increased direct bookings
• Increased access to customer information

Increased online visibility

Promoting on Google means hotels significantly increase their online visibility, appearing among the first places in search results and meeting the needs of users who want more and more to finalise their bookings directly from their PC.

Increased direct bookings

Now let’s talk about the second advantage, which affects both players: the Google Ads Hotel metasearch engine gathers rates from both the OTAs and the hotels’ Booking Engine . As we know, bookings received from OTA platforms and sites like Airbnb carry a commission; for example, on Booking.com it can vary from 10% up to 25%; on Airbnb, on average, 3% for hosts and 12-15% for guests. On Google Hotel Ads, you get direct bookings without paying this commission percentage to OTAs.

Hoteliers who promote their hotel’s website can offer a more competitive rate because it is free of OTA commissions and thus can potentially count on an increase in direct bookings on the booking engine.

Customers, however, enjoy a lower cost and a more user-friendly booking experience when they finalize their booking without having to jump from tab to tab to compare rates.

Increased access to customer information

And here is the third advantage. Direct bookings give hoteliers greater access to customer information, optimising Up Sell e Cross Sell techniques, from booking to check out.

How does Google Hotel Ads work?

As we have seen, the Google Hotel Ads campaign allows you to sponsor your accommodation in the SERP and on Google Maps. When you click on the hotel name, a tab is displayed with all the property details, rates, addresses, reviews, and a link for direct booking to the website. Without activating the campaign, this link would not be available.

To appear higher in the organic search results, you need to participate in an auction using four bidding strategies:

1. Commissions per stay: you pay only when the guest completes the stay booked through the link in the ad;
2. Commissions per conversion: a fixed percentage is paid based on the value of the room reservation when the user books the hotel.
3. Enhanced CPC: according to a CPC Max bidding strategy, bidding is automated based on the clicks that are most likely to generate a conversion.
4. Manual CPC: you pay when the potential customer clicks on the ad.

How to use Google Hotel Ads with Octorate

Finally, let’s look at how you can link your hotel to Google Hotel Ads.

Octorate, as a certified Google partner, offers you a fast and precise connection to the platform. You could also share your rates via your Hotel Center Account, but even the Mountain View giant recommends using a third-party provider as a best practice.

Only three steps are required to activate your campaign:

1. Create your tab on Google my Business, for free, taking care to update it with all the most essential information regarding the accommodation, such as photos, address, availability, contacts, and reviews, to match the search filters set by users;
2. Choose a booking engine provided by a certified partner (such as Octorate’s Booking Engine), from which the system can receive rates and availability;
3. Include the Metasearch package in your Octorate subscription

Octorate’s Metasearch package is already connected with Google Hotel Ads. Accommodations that have Octorate’s Booking Engine and decide to maximise bookings can activate a campaign with Google Hotel Ads, with the advantage that Octorate will manage the campaign directly as an integration partner.

But why should you choose Octorate to manage your Google Hotel Ads campaign?

Octorate’s hotel campaigns offer a great advantage, namely the possibility to pay only when the customer completes the booked stay through the ad, according to a Commission per Stay logic.

Frequently asked questions

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