Google is back at it, adding another vital feature to results in its Hotel Ads product to help users decide where to book: pictures of the rooms.
NB: This is an article from mirai
These photos — taken from the Google Booking Module — greatly improve the attractiveness of channels that are able to display them, increasing the chances that a user chooses that channel over alternatives. This improves what marketers call the “CTR” or “click-through rate”). Definitely a great opportunity for the direct sales channel to differentiate itself from the OTAs.
But it doesn’t end there. When users choose to continue and view rates for all the rooms, they can see all the available room options, together with a photograph of each room, allowing far better presentation of our superior rooms.
Recently, Google has significantly bettered its results by making major improvements to the user experience and allowing direct sales channels to compete head-on with the OTAs. Here is a brief summary:
- More transparency on final prices (including taxes, fees and the price for the full stay).
- Possibility to filter by occupancy to see prices for 1 to 4 people.
- Greater clarity in the differentiation of rates by meal plan and cancellation policy.
- Room Clustering in BoG, to avoid duplicate information and simplify the user interface making it easier to get to Hotel Ads.