metasearch

But while this is a first for Google, the idea of surfacing both hotels and rentals in one search result has been offered for some time by OTAs

No one has tackled the travel subscription market at scale and TripAdvisor is almost uniquely placed to do this. They have the potential to have real impact

Ask a revenue manager why they lose sleep at night, and you might hear a few mentions of uncontracted OTAs and booking sites that pop up in metasearch

Metasearch is arguably one of the most important channels for hotel marketers. 2 out of 3 independent hotels receive direct bookings from metasearch engines

If you’re not participating in metasearch yet, free booking links are a fantastic opportunity to get connected and start driving some extra traffic

It is important to understand Free Booking Links are only present in My Business (travel) hotel site and not in other popular Google Hotel Ads placements

Google ‘Free’ offer feels like a move to encourage hotels to try this channel by offering “free” organic traffic to drive more ad spend in Google Hotel Ads

A hotel’s TripAdvisor ranking is calculated using guest ratings however it’s not quite that simple. The current algorithm is based on assessing four areas:

We will explain what metasearch engines are, how they work, and how hotels can connect to main platforms and get the most out of this partnership

Google has emphasized they will ease the process of onboarding new partners while ensuring the trust of the links displayed is of utmost importance to them