All About the Google Hotel Search Redesign

The latest update to the Google hotel search results in a new visual hotel layout

Now live, a significant change to the display of a Google hotel search. The update impacts both travelers and hotels while aiming to make a Google hotel search even easier. For future guests, the updated card view has the potential to show more options at once in an optimized visual way. The biggest change is that clicking on a hotel option now takes you to a Google-generated summarized page in a new tab.

Previously, hotel details were shown through an interactive, slide-out card embedded in the search page. TrustYou research revealed that 81% of travelers turning to search engines prefer to search on Google. In its previous visualization, price and review score were the top two decision variables affecting the booking decision.

The new page of a Google hotel search now offers:

• a complete overview of the hotel,
• a comparative list of prices and availability based on its “Ads,”
• an upgraded reviews summary page,
• an about page with useful information, and
• an aggregated photos page.

This updated change reflects and confirms our previous consumer behavior research about a traveler's standard Google hotel search, with the price and reviews pages preceding the about page.

 

As the premier feedback data aggregator, TrustYou’s Meta-Review API supplies review and badge data that is calculated into the scores and review summaries displayed on the overview, reviews, and about pages. To learn more about how our review marketing solutions can help your hotel, join or schedule one of our free demos!

Our suggestion for all our customer is to perform a Google hotel search for your own property to see how this update changes your hotel listing. From our preliminary assessment, here are some key areas to pay attention to with the new design:

• Preview your hotel name - It appears that hotel names and brands are now reduced to 24 characters before being cut off due to the new truncation
• Check your photos - The new grid on the photos page shows images from multiple sources. Check to make sure these are accurate and up to date and see from where photos of your hotel are coming
• Get our free best practice guide - “Google Hotel Finder: Step-up Your Listing” - We've come up with five simple actions to improve your hotel listing on Google

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