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buuteeq is an innovator and award winning provider of mobile
first, user proven, Google optimized digital marketing Software-
as-a-Service for hotels worldwide so you can book more rooms
directly.
buuteeq powered digital marketing enables you to gain insights
into your guests, meet them on their smartphones, desktops,
and tablets, provide them with compelling marketing options,
and take reservations – all from a single command post.
With buuteeq’s digital marketing system, you get free, ongoing
updates and capabilities so that your online hotel presence
never falls behind technologically.
buuteeq offers tailored editions of our solution (features,
services, and pricing). For more information on products,
pricing, or partnerships, please visit us at www.buuteeq.com or
call +1 (800) 734-1769.
About buuteeq
Visit the buuteeq BLOG and follow us on
Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
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3-Step Guide to Google
Hotel Finder
Chapter 1 – What Is It?
Chapter 2 – How Does Google Make Money?
Chapter 3 – How Does Google Get Your Hotel’s Info?
Chapter 4 – The Benefits of Google Hotel Finder
Chapter 5 – Step 1 : Create a Google+ Local Page
Chapter 6 – Step 2: Connect to an OTA or GDS
Chapter 7 – Step 3: Update Your Info
Chapter 8 – Tip: How to Get Listed on an OTA
Table of Contents
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While Hotel Finder is a new, exciting marketing opportunity
from Google, it’s also one more complicationto worry about.
We hopethis eBook helps to clear the fog surroundingHotel
Finder, giving you the tools you need to market your hotel
successfully.
Brian Saab
Co-founder
Creative Marketing Officer
buuteeq,inc.
Thanks for Reading!
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5buuteeq – The Digital Marketing System for Hotels3-STEP GUIDE TO GOOGLEHOTEL FINDER
Thisavailability calendar appears at the top of Google search engine result pages (SERPs) for
many travel-related queries. Guests can inputtheir check-in and check-out dates, and then
Google will direct them to Hotel Finder to see a list of hotels that match their query.
What is Google Hotel Finder?
Google Hotel Finder is a trip planner for guests searching or hotels. From a
dedicated section of Google, guests can search for specific hotels by name, or
explore hotels by location. When ready to book, Google directs guests to their
purchase destination of choice, which can include online travel agencies (OTAs)
or hotel websites directly.
How Does It Work?
When guests go to Google Search to look for hotels, Google will place an
availability calendar box at the top of the results, encouraging guests to search
for hotels from Hotel Finder. When guests submit the form, they are directed to
Hotel Finder, where they can see a selection of hotels that fit their query.
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6buuteeq – The Digital Marketing System for Hotels3-STEP GUIDE TO GOOGLEHOTEL FINDER
This is what Hotel Finder looks like. It consists of three panels — the list of matching hotels on the left,
the selected hotel’s information and reviews in the middle, and a map of the area on the right.
Google Hotel Finder Snapshot
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8buuteeq – The Digital Marketing System for Hotels3-STEP GUIDE TO GOOGLEHOTEL FINDER
Thisred buttonis the CTA on Hotel
Finder landing pages. The OTA or hotel
that bids the highestgets their name
first. In this example, Priceline has the
highest bid, so we see their button.
Other contenders—includingthe hotel
website—are listed beneath the ‘more’
drop-downbutton.
Hotel Price Ads
Google makes their money by selling promoted hotel placements in Hotel
Finder, as we cover on our blog. OTAs and hotels bid for prominence using a
service by Google called Hotel Price Ads. The top bids get promoted
placements, and promoted calls to action (CTAs) on the hotel’s detail page. For
example, if Priceline bids the highest for a hotel, then Google will place a big red
purchase button leading guests to their OTA as the first purchase option.
Hotel Price Ads are not available to the public. Instead, Google develops direct
relationships with OTAs, large hotel chains, and prominent central reservation
systems (CRSs), giving them access to Hotel Price Ads to use or to re-sell as a
service to hotels. This means that many independent hotels can’t sell their
rooms directly from Google Hotel Finder unless they buy advertising services
from organizations that have access to Hotel Price Ads.
These are examples of promotedlistings in Hotel Finder, foundat the top of the results page. These
two examples are easy to identify, because they have a beige backgroundand labeled by the
word ‘ads’.
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10buuteeq – The Digital Marketing System for Hotels3-STEP GUIDE TO GOOGLEHOTEL FINDER
Google gets your hotel’s information in Hotel Finder
from several sources, including your Google+ Local
Page (formerly Google+ Places), and from VFM
Leonardo, which gets its information from OTAs.
You can control the photos and text that appear in
Hotel Finder by updating your Google+ Local listing,
by publishing changes directly with OTAs, or by
requesting changes from your CRS, if you connect
to OTAs and global distribution systems (GDSs)
through a 3rdparty CRS.
Where it all comes from:
• Your hotel’s Google+ Local Listing
(formerly Google Places)
• VFM Leonardo
• OTAs
• GDSs
Hotel Finder info comes from:
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This is an example of this hotel’s Google+ Local Page, on the left, and their Hotel Finder detail page, on the right.
Notice how the two share many of the same images.
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13buuteeq – The Digital Marketing System for Hotels3-STEP GUIDE TO GOOGLEHOTEL FINDER
Why Is Hotel Finder Important?
Google will likely rank hotels with more reviews, better
marketing content and better Zagat ratings higher
organically on Hotel Finder, so it behooves hotel
marketers to invest time and energy into their Google+
Local Pages.
Rank Higher
on Google Hotel Finder
By placing their Hotel Finder box at the top of SERPs, Google is
consuming valuable real estate, which will direct more guests to
Hotel Finder. If Hotel Finder sees broad adoption by guests, then it
will be important to rank highly on Hotel Finder in order to drive
new bookings.
Additionally, if a hotel bids high enough to direct guests on Hotel
Finder to the hotel website, the hotel snags one more guest away
from an OTA, saving a hefty commission fee.
Even if you’re not considering paying for placement in Hotel
Finder, it’s important to have an optimized hotel listing to lure in
more bookings. While Hotel Finder does not currently direct huge
amounts of traffic to hotel websites, they very well could in the
future. Google has removed Hotel Finder from its ‘experimental’
status. This indicates they think the product has viability.
IT’S A FACT:
Hotels on Google+ Local
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15buuteeq – The Digital Marketing System for Hotels3-STEP GUIDE TO GOOGLEHOTEL FINDER
When you create your Local Page,
be sure to click this button when
choosingthe category.
Why Create a Google+ Local Page?
Google gets a hotel’s marketing content, including descriptions, photos, videos
and more, from your property’s Google+ Local listing. Before you get listed, you
need to create a Google+ Local profile. It is easy to do, and you can get a basic
one set up in just a few minutes. Go here to start:
• Google+ Local Page (Formerly, Google Places)
Note: For Google to recognize your profile as a hotel, you need to select ‘Local
Business or Place’ when setting up your page. We wrote a guide to setting
up your Google+ Local page, which you can read here.
Also Note: Google Hotel Finder supplements your hotel’s information on
Google+ Local with information hosted by VFM Leonardo, which is the company
many OTAs and GDSs use to source booking information related to your hotel.
Therefore, your listing may have more photos than the ones on your Google+
Local profile. Learn more at the VFM Leonardo website, here.
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17buuteeq – The Digital Marketing System for Hotels3-STEP GUIDE TO GOOGLEHOTEL FINDER
Push Your Rates & Rooms to Hotel Finder
Google populates Hotel Finder with up-to-date information about your hotel’s
inventory availability by tapping into GDSs or finding your inventory on OTAs. If
you are not listed on either, then contact your CRS service provider and ask
to connect to the GDS and to list at least some of your inventory on OTAs.
You can also contact OTAs and GDSs directly to set this up yourself. We’ve
included a list of resources at the end of this eBook. If you’re not sure what a
GDS or OTA is, read our free whitepaper on hotel booking solutions.
These are hotel rooms as they appear on Hotel Finder.
Note that these are the same rooms listed on the OTA, above.
These are hotel rooms listed on an OTA—in this example, booking.com.
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19buuteeq – The Digital Marketing System for Hotels3-STEP GUIDE TO GOOGLEHOTEL FINDER
Update Photos, Info, & Encourage Reviews
Now that you have your Google Local listing set up and you’re
connected to an OTA or GDS, you need to keep your hotel’s information
updated. If you use a CRS connected to GDSs and OTAs to manage your
daily hotel inventory, then Hotel Finder will keep your listing’s
availability and rates up-to-date automatically. If not, log into each
service’s extranet to update room listings and rates, which Hotel Finder
will eventually display.
To edit your listing’s marketing content, such as hotel descriptions,
photos, addresses and so on, log-in to your Google+ Local page and
make any changes you wish. Google hasn’t released information on how
long it takes them to update Hotel Finder with new information. It could
take a few hours to a few weeks.
Click ‘edit’ on the various boxesto updateyour hotel’s information.
To edit your page, click the ‘switch to page’ button at the top of your screen, when viewing
your page. Thiswill turn on edit functionality.
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Create photo albums for your
property, such as Locations,
Exterior, Interior, Rooms, etc.,
and upload them to your new
page. These photos may be
synched with Hotel Finder.
Photos
Include accurate contact
information about your
property—this is vital to
ensuring your hotel appears
for the correct Hotel Finder
location queries.
Vital Information
Promote your page and
encourage user engagement.
The reviews your guests place
here may be synced with
Hotel Finder. If your hotel is
Zagat rated, your Zagat rating
may also appear on Hotel
Finder.
Reviews
Use the ‘description’ as an
opportunity to tell your
property’s story in your own
words, while sneaking in a few
focused keywords for better
local rankings.
Your Story
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Contact OTAs & GDSs
Many hotels list their room inventory on OTAs and GDSs
through a CRS. However, it is possible to get listed by
manually submitting your hotel. The links to the left are
some options you can explore to list your property on a
popular OTA or GDS.
All You Gotta
Do is Call.
Expedia – OTA
Contact Expedia if you want to partner with them and offer your room
inventory on their OTAs, including Hotwire and Hotels.com. Once you become a
partner, you can manage your hotel inventory from their extranet.
Travelocity – OTA
Travelocity populates their content from the Sabre data feed. Contact Sabre
Holdings to list your inventory. Once listed, login to Travelocity’s extranet to
update your hotel’s information.
Amadeus – GDS
Amadeus is one of the five major GDSs. Once you verify your hotel qualifies,
you need to contact them to get the contract you need to sign to join. Learn
more about connecting to the Amadeus GDS here.
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Congratulations! Your hotel, if not already, should
be picked up by Google for listing on Hotel Finder
shortly. While Google doesn’t guarantee to list
every hotel that qualifies, they’re actively seeking
to fill their product with quality hotel listings.
Good luck with marketing your hotel on Hotel
Finder!
Welcome to Hotel Finder!
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About the Author
Thanks!
1 (800) 734-1769 / info@buuteeq.com
Brandon Dennis is the Technical Marketing Manager
at buuteeq, the digital marketing system for hotels. He
manages buuteeq’s SEO, paid media channels, content
creation, and the company blog. You can connect with
him on Twitter @buuteeq.
