What are Google Free Hotel Booking Links?
Since March 2021, when a traveller searches for accommodation on specific dates and then clicks on a hotel in the booking module - which appears in the right-hand window of Google search - a new insert has appeared below the traditional Google Hotel Ads: the free Google booking linksor Google Free Hotel Booking LinksThese are not charged per click by Google. They can be accessed via the Google Hotels interface, which itself can be accessed by clicking on the big blue "Book" button, or "Check rates", or "Show other rates". These links will be displayed in addition to the advertising spaces (which are billed to advertisers on a per-click basis).
The different products Google for hotels
The interface Google Hotels
How to activate Google's free booking links
–
Take advantage of free 100% bookings
The Google Free Booking Links - Free Hotel Booking Links are reserved for hotels, B&Bs and B&Bs working with Google Hotel Center partner agencies such as Hotel Web Design. Generating free booking links in itself involves transmitting your establishment's rates, availability and offers to Google in real time. This requires specific technical knowledge and is not something that hoteliers can do on their own.
Benefit from free booking links
These links are not reserved for Google Hotel Ads customers or campaignYou can benefit from this without your establishment being a Google customer. To take advantage of this service, you will need to contact us to link your establishment to Google and boost your rates. Whether or not you are one of our customers, and whatever your channel manager or booking engineWe can pass on your tariffs and availability so that you can benefit from the most competitive prices. Free Hotel Booking Links.
Once the rates have been sent and with Google, the search engine will display and rank your establishment in the search results according to its algorithm. These parameters play a key role:
- Specification of the tariff sent by the agency
- Quality of the destination website
- CTR (Click through rate, the rate of clicks on a link divided by the total number of times that link is displayed)
Your establishment is likely to be featured on Google Free Booking Links both on searches for overnight stays in your town, department and region and on searches for your exact brand name. Naturally, the "broader" the search for overnight stays (at regional level, for example), the more difficult it is to position yourself "free of charge" at the top of the results, and the more relevant it will be to use Google Hotel Ads.
Since Google Free Hotel Booking Links campaigns use the same interface as Google Hotel Ads, it will be easy to switch to a hybrid solution. Google Free Booking Links - Google Hotel Ads afterwards.
We can confidently say that Google created a surprise when they announced the introduction of these free booking links. Does this follow on from the GAFA's legal woes over its anti-competitive practices in Europe? It has to be said that the 1.4 billion dollars in fines relating to anti-trust practices concerned exclusively the way in which Google promotes this or that partner on its site. This penalty was announced just one year before the announcement of the Google Hotel Free Booking Links.
Nobody really knows what Google has in mind when it puts these links in place. free of charge, but there are several plausible leads:
- To redeem its image in the eyes of Europe and its consumers, with Google having accumulated nearly €8.25 billion in fines in Europe over the last 10 years.
- Encouraging hoteliers to use Google's new platform for hotels. The step between Google Free Hotel Booking Links and Google Hotel Ads is minimal. In fact, the free booking links are based on the same interface as the hotel ads.
The future of Google Free Hotel Booking Links
–
Google's strategy behind free booking links
Among our Google customers & free booking links
Contact us today
