Promote Bookings on your website: everything you need to know about GOOGLE HOTEL ADS

What is Google Hotel Ads?

1. What is Google Hotel Ads?

Google Hotel Ads is an advertisement management platform exclusively for hotels that shows your hotel on Google.com and Google Maps.

Through Google Hotel Ads, tourists can make bookings directly on your website, meaning you can control the whole process.

2. What is the user experience like?

The user experience will depend on their search criteria. For a more general search, for example, “hotels in Madrid,” Google will produce a highlighted selection where the hotels that may best meet the tourist’s needs will appear. However, for a more specific search made using the establishment name it will offer a full tile for the establishment on the right-hand side (Google) or left-hand side (Maps) of the page.

CPA and CPC payment models

1. How much will it cost me?

Google offers you several payment methods through which you can participate in the Google Hotel Ads programme. Even still, you should remember that, in all cases, Google will improve your positioning based on two variables: the price of your hotel and your bids.

1. Cost-per-acquisition (CPA)

• No initial investment necessary.
• The CPA payment model only involves the payment of a commission on effective or materialised bookings, discounting cancellations and no-shows.
• Payments are made one month after check-out has been registered.
• This commission is between 10% and 15%, with you being the person who decides where you wish to be positioned.
• Normally campaigns begin at 10% and are adjusted depending on the performance of the campaign.

2. Cost-per-click (CPC)

• Payment is made per clicks and not per acquisition as in the previous case, meaning it does not consider cancellations or no-shows.
• You set the maximum you wish to pay for each click and Google, through the bidding system, selects the winning option. 

2. What option should I choose?

The best option is always the one that offers you the best positioning at the lowest cost. At the outset, you should bear in the mind the price of your rooms, the average number of cancellations and the average stay. YOUR AIM IS TO CALCULATE WHETHER THE CPC MODEL OFFERS YOU THE CHANCE OF POSITIONING YOURSELF BELOW THE 10% MINIMUM SET WITH CPA.

In general, it can be said that establishments with higher rates, longer average stays and a lower number of cancellations should opt for the CPC option.

Managing the CPA model

1. How is the CPA model managed?

 The main requirement is you need an authorised integration partner that will help you manage your campaign.

The role of the partner is to transfer to Google information about your hotel in real time (price, promotions, availability, etc.).

PARATY TECH IS AN AUTHORISED INTEGRATION PARTNER.

2. How is payment for commissions made?

Google will send Paraty a detailed breakdown of bookings with stays from the previous month to the current month.

Paraty will immediately send the hotel the report so agreement can be reached.

Once the breakdown has been reviewed and confirmed, Paraty will pay the Google invoice, before subsequently invoicing the hotel for said commissions.

REMEMBER THAT YOUR BOOKINGS MUST BE REVIEWED WITHIN 10 DAYS.

3. How do we know if a booking has come through Google Hotel Ads? How can this be viewed in the statistics? Or in bookings?

Searches made through Google Ads by a user of the service will involve a cookie that remains active while this individual makes their booking.

When the booking is made, the conversion code installed on our engine runs and the booking is considered a conversion of Google Hotel Ads.

The client may find conversions in “my bookings”, identified as “hotelads”. Likewise, in daily “no avail.” emails, searches that are made through these ads will be identified as “hotelads”. 

4. What happens with cancellations, no-shows and booking modifications?

Cancellations and no-shows: If the user cancels through the establishment’s website, Paraty will report this directly to Google and the commission will not be charged.

If the booking is cancelled by other means or a no-show occurs, the hotel must indicate this during the monthly review of bookings. Paraty will report this to Google and the commission will not be charged.

Booking modifications: During the monthly review, booking modifications will be recorded. These modifications will be reported to Google by Paraty and the commission will be charged on the modified value.

5. How can I view the monthly result of the campaign?

Every month you will be sent a report that details how the Google Hotel Ads campaign went. If you are investing in Google AdWords too, both reports will be sent together.