Amazingly, Google has it done again! Reinventing the Online Booking model. Learn more…

This time Google has introduced itself in the hospitality sector by creating a new tool called Google Hotels, a new travel search engine. It consists of a search experience in which the user can carry out the whole investigation process through Google. This way, the search engine consolidates itself as the most complete option in the investigation process inside the buyer journey.

How does Google Hotels work?

Google Hotels is a very intuitive tool, it could be compared to Airbnb’s system since they both share the same organizational structure.

In the first phase of the search, the user selects a destination, dates, and number of guests. The search results can also be filtered by customer ranking, price range, services, promotions, and hotels or seasonal renting.

Once you select a hotel, Google Hotels shows the different prices provided by OTAs and the official website. Google also allows you to view other guests’ reviews and photos, and hotel information before booking, information which, as you know, should always be managed, as travelers revise these points before booking their vacations.

What changes have taken place?

The emergence of this tool makes us reflect on a series of doubts, such as where the change is, if Google already offered us all that information; or if they will end up assuming the role of the OTAs. But it is Google’s own philosophy that answers this question, as their mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”.
In this way, Google integrates information from OTAs and official websites(prices, promotions, and hotel information) with user-generated content(reviews and photos), so that the user can access it through the same channel.

Pros and cons for the hospitality sector.

Pros:

• Traffic accessing the hotel comes from a quality filtering process.
• There is space to compete organically with other providers

Cons:

• The “offers” page is based on a combination of historic information from the hotel and a comparison of the market.
• The reservation options that appear in the search phase don’t indicate where the offer comes from. However, if you promote yourself on Google Hotels, this is indicated.

After discovering this new tool from Google, are you looking forward to using it? It is the moment to capitalize on this growth phase to find out all of its advantages and to achieve greater performance.