Google boosts vacation rental visibility in its search engine

Google is boosting its alternative accommodation divisions by joining rates, photos, reviews and map within Google's search results

To further highlight its growing vacation rentals and apartments business, the company is also placing these features above other travel firms’ organic results, suggesting that Google is prioritizing growth in a trending space.

Beforehand, listings were displayed in Google’s hotel search or in recently-launched one-stop shopping platform Google Trips. However, all searches for vacation rentals now trigger four results in a box from vendors or channel managers when the user types in a keyword, such as a location.

Searches for vacation rentals still differ from those for hotels in some instances however.

When the user clicks on a vacation rental that is displayed and accesses the follow-up page on Google Trips, users see listings from a sole company rather than being faced with listings from several companies on an auction-style page.

Director of Business Development for Travel, Nicola Simionato, launched the firm’s vacation rental program at the Vacation Rental World Summit in Lake Como, Italy.

Read more here

Join us November 12-15 for the Property Portal Watch Conference Madrid 2019.