Google's Hotel Finder, which up until November 27th has been in a beta version, is now rolled out for several countries. A bonus to this is that now, smaller accommodations such as bed and breakfasts are included in the results.
Find your inn by clicking this link: http://www.google.com/hotelfinder and searching your city and state. You'll likely have to scroll through pages of larger hotel chains, but will eventually hit the B&B listings. If you are not included, Google suggests making sure that you have claimed and filled out your Google Places and Google + Local accounts as much as possible, including photos, videos and business details.
The potential guest can also sort the search by several different options, such as price, user rating, and amenities:
When you find your page, you can see how if you are not hooked to a GDS (Global Distribution System) or OTA (Online Travel Agency), your rates and booking will not automatically display. You will, however, have a link to your site:
If you do have a relationship with an OTA or GDS, you should see a link with booking info, like this:
If you've done everything that Google suggests to show up in Hotel Finder and you're still not there, try posting on the Google and your business forum in hopes that a Googler will see your post and help you out: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/business/o2XwZ2HPgoA
Here is another good article about Hotel Finder: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/how_to_claim_your_google_hotel_finder_page, which backs up that the most important thing to do is to aggressively claim and fill in your Google + Local page.
Annie Buck
Sales Manager
Acorn IS
Thanks, Annie. Just checked for our region and we are within the first 12 listed. Awesome!
Thanks for the heads up on the hotel finder feature! Any idea how the traffic from Google’s hotel finder will be separated from other Google search products in our analytics accounts?
Hi Amanda,
Yes, to find the referrals from HotelFInder, go to Traffic Sources, then Sources, then Referrals, find Google.com in the referrals, click that, and look for : /Hotels and /Hotelfinder
Thanks!
Annie
Hey thanks for the info! Ive been verifying the information about my B&B through the Hotel Finder, and most of it looks good, however, I’ve run across a slight hiccup that you might know the answer to. Our business is in Cambridge WI, a small town outside of Madison. If we search for hotels in Cambridge, it comes right up. If we search for the Madison area, we aren’t on the list, yet some of the other B&B’s in Camridge come up, and I’ve verified their Google Plus/Places account address is set to Cambridge, just like ours. Any idea on how to get a small town B&B to come up when people search for hotels in a metropolitan area?
Thanks,
Janice
Lake Ripley Lodge B&B
Hi Janice,
With Hotel Finder being such a new product, I don’t have a concise answer for you. One thing you might try is to make sure you mention the word Madison in your Google Places description. I also think that being listed with various OTAs will make a difference as well. Hotel Finder is a revenue generator for Google, and I suspect preference will be shown to those who subscribe to the companies that are paying Google for placement. Here is a link to an interesting TNooz article about Hotel Finder: http://www.tnooz.com/2012/06/01/news/google-hotel-finder-ota-advertisers-commandeer-hotel-pages/