The launch of the Google Travel Insights platform is intended to help those in the travel industry by providing a single location to access important market data, industry insights and relevant tools. In this article, you can find out more about the service itself and the numerous ways it can help travel companies to improve business performance.

What is Google Travel Insights?

Google Travel Insights is a section of the wider Google platform and is geared towards those operating within the travel and tourism industry. It offers up a variety of online tools, along with useful data and other information, allowing businesses, marketing professionals and others to gain real insight into the state of play at any given time.

According to Google, the platform is intended to help businesses develop a deeper understanding of current levels of demand for travel, see how this demand is evolving over time, pinpoint exactly where demand for travel is coming from, and view key performance data and analytics from a single access point.

The Google Travel Insights platform launched in 2020 and its creation was partially motivated by a desire to help the industry recover from the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic and the resulting restrictions on travel.

Why is Google Travel Insights Useful for Travel Companies?

The launch of the Google Travel Insights platform was welcomed throughout the travel and hospitality industry; mainly because it provides businesses with access to important information and useful data.

By making use of the market insights provided through the service, companies are able to identify patterns in demand, see precisely where demand is growing and shrinking, and then adjust their business strategies accordingly. For example, the insights can be invaluable in helping businesses to plan marketing strategies and annual budgets.

The Three Components of Google Travel Insights

Google Travel Insights provides a number of different tools, data sets and insights for those in the travel and tourism industry. These services are currently divided into three main components, which are as follows:

1. Destination Insights by Google Travel

As the name indicates, the Destination Insights by Google Travel component is focused on global destinations. On a basic level, this means different countries around the world. Yet, within each country, the service also offers a breakdown of the specific towns, cities and locations that travelers are showing the most interest in visiting.

This component primarily offers useful data about current and historic levels of demand for travelling to particular destinations around the world, as well as information about where that demand is actually coming from. To provide this, Google looks at domestic and international travel, along with information on flights, hotel bookings and searches.

As such, this component is useful for any travel company with connections to a particular destination. It also allows individuals and businesses to understand how demand for their local destinations compares to years gone by.

2. Hotel Insights by Google Travel

The Hotel Insights by Google Travel component focuses squarely on accommodation. It utilizes data gathered from hotel searches carried out by Google’s users, in order to provide hotels with important information.

In particular, hotel owners and marketing experts are able to learn more about the travelers who make searches indicating they are interested in a particular travel market. This then allows hotels to optimize their marketing strategy and target spending and efforts at the travelers who are most likely to stay with them.

Hotel insights of this kind are predominantly going to appeal to hotel owners. With that being said, the information and tools provided may also be useful for those in other parts of the travel or hospitality industry too.

3. Google Travel Analytics Center

Finally, unlike the previous two components, the Google Travel Analytics Center is only available to those who are registered as a Google commercial travel partner. This includes Enterprise partners and similar groups.

The main benefit that the Analytics Center offers is the potential to import your own data and then combine your company information with Google’s own unique insights. The service also provides a convenient means of exploring your own performance across the various different Google travel platforms that exist.

As a result, it is a useful service for monitoring your own marketing performance, understanding how that performance relates to wider industry trends, and then using this to make more strategic business decisions.

Google Hotels: Gain Visibility and Attract More Bookings

The Google Travel Insights offering is not the only Google service that can be of benefit to those in the travel industry. Another good example comes in the form of Google Hotels; a service that is fully integrated with Google’s core search engine, along with Google Maps, Google Assistant and more.

Travel Marketing Tips to Improve Your Results

Businesses in the travel industry can live and die on the basis of their marketing and while Google Travel Insights is a valuable tool, there are a number of additional travel marketing tips and practices you should be aware of too. These can include everything from focusing on personalization, to using the very latest technology.

The Key Travel Trends You Need to Be Aware Of

The Google Travel Insights platform is ideal for keeping up with the latest data trends, but there are also some more general travel trends you need to be aware of. Examples of this include the rise of ‘bleisure‘ (business and leisure) travel, the growth of eco-friendly travel and the growing use of virtual reality (VR) technology.

List of Distribution Channels to Sell Your Travel Inventory

Being aware of trends and demand through Google Travel Insights can be hugely beneficial for businesses in the travel industry, but it is equally important to know how to sell your inventory. In particular, online travel agencies (OTAs) and hotel metasearch engines can play a vital role, and most companies should aim to maximize direct bookings too.

A Complete Overview of the Travel Industry

The travel industry is one of the largest and most diverse service industries in the world, catering for billions of customers each year. Included within the industry are businesses and other organizations linked to areas like accommodation, transportation, food and beverages, entertainment, tourist information and more.

Google Travel Insights forms part of the wider Google offering, and is intended to be used by those involved in areas like travel, tourism and hospitality. It provides businesses, marketers and Google partners with valuable insights into the current demand for travel, allowing trends to be identified and more strategic decisions to be made.

Ramy Ayoub

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Business growth and revenue management are top priorities for most hotel owners, and these concepts tend to rely heavily on optimizing demand for hotel rooms. One of the ways hotels can do this is through the Google Hotels platform. In this article, you can find details on how this works and what the main benefits are.

What is Google Hotels?

Google Hotels is a hotel metasearch engine, which forms part of the wider Google search engine. It allows customers to search for and book hotels online, and allows those involved in hotel management to increase visibility and attract more bookings. The service originally launched in 2011 and was initially known as Google Hotel Finder.

Aside from its core functionality in helping users to find and book hotel rooms, Google Hotels is also valuable as a room rate comparison tool and a review platform. It will allow potential customers to compare feedback, along with prices for different hotels, and even prices on different platforms that are selling the same hotel rooms.

How Does Google Hotels Work?

The Google Hotels service is able to present users with information about all of the hotels that Google is aware of. This awareness could home about as a result of online travel agents (OTAs), other hotel metasearch engines, professional relationships between the hotel and Google, paid advertisements, and more.

Examples of the type of information presented include hotel descriptions, reviews, location data and price information. Google Hotels also allows users to book rooms directly through the platform, which means potential hotel customers do not ever need to leave Google. This results in a greatly streamlined booking process.

With that being said, Google Hotels also provides links to other platforms, including hotel websites and OTAs.

For many travelers, Google represents the first destination for travel bookings, because it allows for instant price comparisons and the booking of hotels, airline tickets and much more. With this in mind, it makes sense for those involved with hotel marketing to capitalize on the platform’s popularity, in order to enhance hotel visibility.

While those within the hotel industry tend to favor direct bookings, because more of the money spent by the customer is retained by the hotel, it is a reality that the hotel industry is increasingly reliant on third-party services. These third parties can help to generate bookings, because customers discover hotels through them.

Google Hotels is unique in offering benefits associated with third-parties, while simultaneously boosting direct bookings.

What is the Difference Between Google Hotels and OTAs?

Online travel agents, or OTAs, sell services on behalf of companies in the travel industry, including hotels. In the process, they will take a commission fee, which will usually be a percentage of the amount the customer pays. As a result, while they have a clear role in your hotel marketing strategy, they can be expensive to rely on.

By contrast, Google Hotels is a metasearch engine, which searches other platforms, including OTAs, and shows availability information, along with the various room rates. In addition to this, hotels also have the opportunity to use Google Hotels to showcase their property, advertising rates and availability, and attract direct bookings.

What Are the Advantages of Google Hotel for Hoteliers?

In this section, you will be able to find out about some of the key advantages of using Google Hotels for those in the

1. Capture Customers Seeking a Hotel in Your Area

One of the big advantages of Google Hotels is the ability to attract and convert customers who are specifically seeking hotels in your area. This is important, because many Google users do not have a specific hotel in mind when they begin their search and they are seeking only the best available option in the location of their choice.

The results that are displayed when users enter a relevant search term will provide your hotel’s name, along with room rates, location details, reviews and various other pieces of information that can help to attract bookings.

2. Generate a Higher Number of Direct Bookings

Another crucial benefit of using Google Hotels is the ability to compete with OTAs for visibility in Google search results, while also linking customers directly to your hotel’s website and/or booking engine. Without this, customers would be more likely to book through those OTAs instead of going the direct route.

This is significant because direct bookings allow hotels to retain more of the money customers spend on the booking. After all, OTAs take a fairly large commission – sometimes exceeding 20 percent. If your hotel is not connected to any OTAs at all, Google Hotels helps to ensure you have a presence on search engine results pages.

3. Access to Important Customer Information

While Google’s service does essentially act as a link between the customer and the hotel, many bookings generated through Google Hotels are eventually made directly. As a result, when you generate bookings, you are able to gain access to valuable customer information, including contact details and demographic data.

When bookings are made through other third parties, they often gain ownership of the customer information instead. Such information is valuable for pre-arrival customer service, and the customer information can equally be used as part of a wider data collection strategy, so that the data can inform future business decisions.

4. Ownership of the Entire Customer Journey

In addition to gaining valuable customer information, another plus point associated with using Google Hotels is the opportunity to own the entire customer journey from start to finish.

This can be important for a number of reasons, but one of the most significant relates to pre-arrival communication. If a hotel has ownership of the entire journey, they can more easily communicate hotel policies with those who book, but also identify opportunities for up-selling and cross-selling too, which is vital for optimizing revenue.

How is Your Hotel Showcased in Google Hotels?

When you actually connect your hotel to the Google Hotels service, your hotel will be showcased in a number of different ways. You can find out more about these below:

In Search Results

The first and perhaps most obvious place your Google hotel ads will be displayed is within search engine results pages. Your hotel information and booking options will be shown to users who enter relevant search terms, such as those who are searching for hotels with your name, or for hotels close to your geographical location.

In Google Maps

Google Hotels will also display your hotel information within the Google Maps platform. This can be vital, because many travelers use Google Maps ahead of their trip in order to get a clear sense of local attractions, local facilities and nearby hotels. From the Maps interface, users are also able to book rooms directly.

In Google Assistant

Google Assistant is the name of Google’s AI-powered virtual assistant. It is found on smartphones, smart hubs and other similar devices, and allows hotels to reach users who are using voice search to find hotels. Furthermore, Google Assistant actually allows for bookings to be completed entirely through voice commands.

In Google Hotel Search

Finally, hotel ads will also be displayed when users visit the dedicated Google Hotels website (Google.com/travel/hotels) and conduct a relevant search. This is useful, because these users have very clear intent with their searches and they are also among the most likely to actually complete a booking.

What Are the Costs for Hoteliers Selling Rooms via Google Hotels?

Google Hotels works according to a bidding model, with hotels selecting their strategy and deciding how much they are willing to pay for hotel information to be displayed to users who have carried out a relevant search. One of the most popular options here is cost-per-click (CPC), where the hotel pays for each click generated by their advertisement.

The CPC model includes options for a fixed amount to be paid per click, or for a more flexible approach, where bids are automatically adjusted based on the likelihood of attracting a booking. An alternative to CPC is to pay Google on a commission basis and this can be set up so that you pay per commission per booking, or per guest stay.

Essentially, this means you will have a choice between paying out a percentage of the booking fee the customer pays, or paying a set amount of your own money each time one of your ads is clicked.

Video: How Consumers Use Google Hotels?

In this video, you will learn how consumers use Google Hotels to search and find hotels.

Video: How to Use Google Hotel Ads to Increase Direct Bookings

In this video, hoteliers will learn how to Use Google Hotels Ads and increase their direct bookings.

How to Become a Google Hotels Partner

Hotels have two main options for becoming a Google Hotels partner: connect availability information and room rates to the service directly, or find and work with an official connectivity partner or channel manager.

The first option will require you to create and maintain an account with the Google Hotel Center. From there, you should be able to connect availability and pricing information and link your new account to your Google Ads account.

Working with a connectivity partner circumvents much of this hassle, as everything will be taken care of for you. However, the downside is that this option will cost more and it could be prohibitively expensive for smaller hotels.

Reviews on the Google Hotels Service

The Google platform allows users to leave reviews for many business types, and hotels are no different. Google Hotels will display these reviews to users, enabling them to get a sense of what customers really think about your hotel. Crucially, the platform has been configured to detect and remove reviews that appear to be spam.

Understanding Google Travel Insights

Aside from Google Hotels, there are various other Google services that can benefit those in the travel and tourism industry, and a good example of this can be seen with Google Travel Insights. This particular service provides access to key performance and industry data, with examples including demand for travel and emerging booking trends.

Google Hotels forms one part of the much larger global offering from Google, and it has become extremely well regarded within the travel and tourism sector. By fully capitalizing on what the platform has to offer, hotels have the potential to improve online visibility, attract direct bookings and grow their business.

Ramy Ayoub

The post Tips for Hoteliers to Grow Bookings With Google Hotels appeared first on Ramy Ayoub.