Over the past year, the meta landscape has faced challenges with price presentation tactics that, while technically compliant, created confusion or mismatches in user expectations.
NB: This is an article from Koddi
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In many cases, a rate might be “shoppable” – meaning it can be booked – but it wasn’t the most prominent or relevant rate on the landing page.
This behavior wasn’t a direct policy violation, but it was unquestionably deceptive. Users clicked expecting one rate, only to be taken down a convoluted path toward a higher price. The experience was broken, and Google’s price accuracy policy wasn’t quite robust enough to stop it.
On November 3rd, Google is rolling out significant updates to its Meta Price Accuracy Policy, marking a clear step toward improving transparency, consistency, and fairness across the travel auction. These changes are designed to protect users, elevate trustworthy listings, and realign the marketplace around accurate and relevant pricing. In this article, we’ll walk through key changes announced, and what it means for the metasearch auction.
The Fix: Three key policy changes
Price display must be the most prominent & relevant. Google’s old policy required rates to be “prominent,” but that left wiggle room in how partners displayed prices. Now, it’s clear: the displayed price must be the most prominent and most relevant rate shown on the landing page. This eliminates tactics where a low price was technically visible but buried beneath higher ones or hidden in less accessible parts of the page.
More clarity around meta-on-meta relationships. To improve transparency and control, Google is placing limits on how meta platforms pass users along the booking path. Going forward: Partners like TripAdvisor or Kayak can still advertise a rate in the meta auction, but that rate must originate from a direct OTA or supplier, not from another meta provider.
This means the advertised rate must not come from another aggregator or meta source (e.g., Trivago). However, if the rate is from a direct bookable source like Hotels.com or a hotel brand site, that’s still allowed. The goal is to reduce excessive redirection and ensure a more consistent, user-friendly experience.
