SALES & MARKETING
YOU CAN PROVIDE A LOT OF VALUE IN A SEARCH ENGINE SETTING WITHOUT JUST MAKING IT ABOUT PRICE .
CINDY ESTIS GREEN
Google ' s new hotels price insights tool , rolled out at the end of August
The user-oriented tool shows consumers a range of prices for a given hotel over time . on pricing , then we ’ re getting consumers in the mode of thinking that ’ s the only thing that matters .”
Green points to Facebook , which offers recommendations for and references to hotels that were given by a user ’ s friends and family .
“ Then the company is serving up hotels based on what the consumer might actually be more interested in ,” she says . “ They ’ re approaching their search engine not on the basis of offering up the best prices , but on the basis of what is the best fit for the user .”
“ You can provide a lot of value in a search engine setting without just making it about price ,” she adds .
Not so fast , says Adam Lawley , an SEO specialist at HEBS Digital , a New Yorkbased digital marketing company for hotels . Though Google ’ s new tool is solely about price for now , that doesn ’ t mean hotels can ’ t benefit from it .
“ It ’ s really part of a continued trend of Google fighting OTAs ,” Lawley says . “ Rather than individuals clicking through to OTAs to compare rates and compare prices directly , Google is continuing to push to just have users and searches stay right on Google and use their tools , their ratings .”
More than anything , according to Lawley , hotels should be looking at their SEO use and finding ways to get themselves to the top of search with respect to Google ’ s new tool .
“ It does open up an opportunity for hotels to use their Google local presence to leverage themselves against competitors for terms that they wouldn ’ t normally ever rank for organically ,” he says . “ It opens up another door .”
“ It ’ s fairly simple . Google wants to become a one-stop shop for users who want to make reservations , and the biggest reason they roll out a lot more features for the hospitality industry than most others is that there is a lot more money to be made on hotel bookings ,” says Sergey Alakov , an SEO specialist and consultant based in Toronto .
“ While pricing has always been one of the major factors , hotels that ranked well in local packs didn ’ t always have to compete on price with others , especially for less price-sensitive travelers ,” Alakov adds . “ This may change now when users don ’ t even need to spend a lot of extra time to compare prices .”
KEEP AN EYE ON IT For internal sales and marketing staff at both the property and brand levels , it ’ s crucial to monitor user behavior and reservation numbers to see how it affects the hotel ’ s presence with Google ’ s new tool , say both Alakov and Lawley .
According to Google ’ s Holden , “ Our objective here , though , is really over time just to build a richer and richer hotel search experience and airline search experience as well .” For now , he says , the tool will remain free and won ’ t be monetized on the user end .
Lawley says he sees Google ’ s long game here as being more about users not only being able to compare prices but to give ratings and scores along the lines of TripAdvisor .
“ As they ’ re still sort of in testing right now , they ’ ll continue to play with ‘ scores ’ for the hotel ,” Lawley says . “ This is something they ’ ve unrolled slowly but it ’ s becoming about a ‘ neighborhood score ’ and a ‘ comfort score ,’ and I see reviews becoming more fleshed out around the hotel itself . I can see that becoming an increased feature with this .”
50 hotelsmag . com November 2018