How Google is competing with OTAs in 2020

It’s a known fact that Google has goals of becoming the complete funnel for many of the searches and transactions we make online.  They’ve already made great strides with their airline system and they have their sights squarely aligned with the hotel/travel space. This 2020 Google is showing firm actions to become King among hotels.

This transition is not new, Google has been working for years to improve the guest experience before, during and after they book a Hotel. However, as they announced in 2018 they’re making a focused effort on the travel space.  TripAdvisor, Expedia, Booking Holdings… They all need to pay attention to these big hotel updates or they will be out of business very fast.  In this article, we are going to look at the 5 ways Google could use to crush TripAdvisor and several OTAs.

#1: Google Listing Experience is improving rapidly

In late 2018 Google redesigned their hotel search experience so you can more easily explore and filter for hotels on your mobile device. Travelers love interacting with the new mobile features—so now the same modern look and feel to Hotel Search is available on desktop, too.

We strongly believe that this design is better than other platforms like TripAdvisor or other OTAs provide. Easy and clean

#2: Hotel Price Insights

Google Flights is the most convenient and most accurate way to search and find the best airline deals.   Over the years Google has been trying to bring the convenience and accuracy of Google Flight to the hotel space. Recently Google has upped their game with several new tools:

• Hotel price alerts
• Price comparisons to other nearby or related properties
• Ability to save and track rates for a location
• Ability to see hotel price trends over time

#3: Booking Direct On Google

The biggest problem on the conversion funnel of a Hotel is the payment process. In fact, 26% of travelers abandon the booking for long forms, long process time or even because the website doesn’t provide a secure system. Google is eliminating this problem as more customer use Google Pay platforms which are included in Android. So OTAs that rely on pulling users out of Google to get their traffic are going to suffer as Google now wants customer to staty on their platform.

#4: Google improving Advertising for Hotels

Google Hotel Ads has been in recent years an important platform for driving more bookings. Marketers are increasing the budgets in GHA to get the best performance on PPC . For examples check this add.

Nothing special, right?

You simply can’t communicate much value in such a limited space. Not when there are so many factors at play.

It’s much easier to advertise your website for traffic on the search network than it is to convince someone to buy a stay at your hotel.

People want details. Pictures. Reviews. Location. Proximity to tourist sites. And that can’t be accomplished with a basic text ad.

Now compare that to this Google Hotel Ad:

In this Google Hotel Ad, the hotel showcases:

• Pictures of the hotel, both inside and outside street view
• Exact map location in the city
• Reviews of the hotel in star format
• Address and phone number
• Current discounts: save $130 if you stay on specific dates
• Direct availability checker
• Detailed hotel information, including benefits, features and a rich description of why this hotel is great for the user.

#5: TripAdvisor Is Really Screwing Up

TripAdvisor is notoriously hard to deal with from an advertiser perspective and we continually are battling issues with system performance, errors, and reporting problems. Here’s where Google will really be able to grow their market share, particularly on the advertiser side.  Google is clearly following the quote by Napoleon Bonaparte, “Never Interfere With an Enemy While He’s in the Process of Destroying Himself.”

If Google is able to get their system producing the volume of bookings TripAdvisor currently does, hoteliers will happily shift budgets to the service that offers fewer headaches and better reporting.  Unfortunately, we’re not there yet but once Google is able to market their hotel platform capabilities to customers and booking volumes increase, TripAdvisor had better watch out.

Conclusion and Key Takeaways

Google is starting to take shape and a hotelier will be well-served to keep an eye on this beast and be ready to take advantage of the market shakeups that are coming in its wake.  Expect TripAdvisor and the OTAs to create programs to retain their market share. Hoteliers should also be prepared to capitalize on the upcoming changes with these recommendations:

• Make sure your Google My Business listing is optimized and you are taking full advantage of this platform.
• Work with your agency to make sure you are pushing your traditional PPC to its limits.
• Review your GHA campaign and make sure you are fully utilizing the platform.
• Google is lagging behind TripAdvisor in reviews, but not by much.  Have a plan to grow your Google reviews.
• Review your budget for 2020 and make sure you are positioning your efforts to take advantage of Google’s push into the hotel space.

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