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  • Home
  • MANAGEMENT
    • OTA commissions – can you cut back?

      Top 5 Questions Your Hotel Reservations Team…

      9 hotel pricing strategies you should know…

      An In-depth Guide to Hotel Revenue Management

      Upselling – The New Challenge for Hoteliers…

  • Marketing
    • Hotel marketing | 11 Tips to Kickstart…

      Hotel marketing | Local SEO cheat sheet…

      Digital Marketing: 10 Things Hoteliers Should Be…

      6 Hotel Marketing Trends to try for…

      Top Hospitality & Travel Marketing Trends You…

  • Tips & Trends
    • Mobile-friendly hotel website: what it means and…

      11 Travel terms & Hospitality industry trends…

      5 Tips On How to Target Corporate…

      The 2022 guide to attracting Gen Z…

      7 Awesome Tips To Improve Your Hotel’s…

  • News
    • Thoughtful Thursday: Easily Manage your Booking.com Content…

      STAAH Product Updates June

      The Big Travel Rebound Kuala Lumpur &…

      STAAH Integrates with Situ – a leading…

      Are you making the most of your…

  • Vacation Rentals
    • 7 Tips & Tricks To Make Your…

      Facebook Marketing Tips For Your Vacation Rental…

      Why Guest Screening is important for Vacation…

      Digital marketing for hotels & vacation rentals…

      Don’t let energy bills soak up your…

  • Success Stories
    • Lift in direct bookings & customer satisfaction…

      Hotel Polo Towers Group Maximize Growth &…

      Crescent Spa & Resorts Saw Average Annual…

      KLoe Hotel, Malaysia Boosts Direct Bookings By…

      GCC Hotel & Club, India gains an…

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      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Avijit Arya and…

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      Smart Distribution & Building a Resilient Business…

      STAAH Product Masterclass – Series 1 How…

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      STAAH E-Guide: A-go-to-Communication Guide for Vacation Rentals

      STAAH e-Book How To Set Up Your…

      Opening Checklist post COVID-19: Things To Keep…

      EBOOK: BEGINNERS GUIDE TO REVENUE MANAGEMENT

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4 Tips to Increase Hotel Direct Bookings using Google

25 August 2021

Google’s latest free booking links for hotels along with a suite of other tools is fantastic to get more direct bookings. Is your property set up with these tools?


Google offers a variety of different services that can help hotel marketers expand their reach, increase online visibility, and ultimately improve their business – and better yet, they’re easy to implement. Many of them won’t even cost you a cent.

Let’s take a look at some Google tools and features you must deploy to get the most for your hotel.

1) Create & claim Google My Business listing

Google My Business Listing

Google My Listings Example Paihia Beach Resort Spa

Start with the essential – Google My Business listing. A free-to-use platform, it combines Google Search and Google Maps.

From a verified Google My Business account, hotel owners can review traffic metrics, gather customer insights, view and respond to Google Reviews, and ensure users get the most up-to-date information about your hotel. Optimising your Google My Business is critical to help you achieve success in the local SEO and international search. Here are some things to keep in mind to optimise your Google My Business listing:

  • Check for duplicates. One hotel = one listing, no more.
  • Complete all details pertaining to name, address, opening hours etc.
  • Ensure you fill out details on your GMB business profile such as category and amenities under Hotel Attributes
  • Good quality photos and catchy descriptions  are good for conversions
  • Make COVID-19 related updates, communicating temporary closures, changes to amenities or inform about increased hygiene standards
  • Use your listing to get and respond to Google Reviews

2) Make the most of Google’s Free Hotel Links

Get Google ListingsIn what’s been described as a game-changer, Google is giving away some “free’ booking links (Google free tools)

Google Booking Links is a free listing in Google Hotel Search that displays a link to your website’s booking engine with an “Official Site” badge. It shows your property’s bookable rates and helps lead to direct reservations. It appears underneath any ‘Google Hotel Ads’ being run and is listed under “All options.”

Free Google Listings

To qualify for this free listing, you must have a Google My Business listing and use a booking engine from one of Google’s approved partners. STAAH is a Google partner and its Get Google feature is available with STAAH booking engines. The Get Google feature, once enabled, allows property owners and managers to sync their rates and availability feed to Google.

3) Enable Google Ads

Google Ads

Google Ads are ‘keyword ads’ – a paid product that you can use to promote your brand, help sell products or services, raise awareness, and increase traffic to your website. The results are displayed as an ‘ad box’ at the top of Google’s search results page, as opposed to within the hotel search.

While this is a paid product, remember the bookings from it come commission-free. Definitely a must-add to your content marketing mix.

4) Use Google Street View

Google Street view

High-quality photos on your business listing can improve your prospective guest’s experience and make it easier for them to find you. 360 tours let customers peek inside before they arrive and boost your visibility online.

Google Street View enables this and is ideal to inspire confidence amongst potential guests. You could hire a professional photographer to create these for you – recommended by Google and worth the investment.

Need tips for Google Maps? Read here

Conclusion

Conclusion

Google has moved away from being just a traffic generator to a powerful booking source – a “one-stop-shop” for all things travel. If you want to increase the online footprint of your property and grow more direct business, pay special attention to Google, making the most of its paid and free features.


If you’re looking for a consultation on how to use Google’s Free Booking Links feature, contact our team today

4 Tips to Increase Hotel Direct Bookings using Google was last modified: June 21st, 2022 by Nashi Dasgupta

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