Forget using Google Maps when you want to find a hotel to stay at for a business trip or family vacation! You can now use Google’s Hotel Finder.
Google Hotel Finder is a search tool specifically designed to make it easier to find and compare hotels for your trips. The features include:
- Draw simple shapes to define the neighborhoods (yes, more than one!) that interest you.
- See popular locations on maps with highlights
- One click adds hotels to your shortlist, where you can review them easily.
- See if you will get a good deal by by comparing a hotel’s current price with its typical one.
It starts with the filter on the left hand side that gives you various options such as:
- Location Filters (with drawing shapes
- Dates for your stay
- Price point filters
- Hotel ratings & user rating filters
Here is a screen shot of the side bar:
Once you type in a location, you can then position the map with your clicker and draw lines around the specific location you want to stay. Google will then show you hotels in that area.
Clicking on the hotel icons on the map will show you more details about the hotel. You can then book the hotel or add it to your shortlist:
Booking a hotel is driven by Google Hotel Ads:
If you are unsure, just add it to your shortlist and you can compare the hotels on your list. Google also shows you if the price the hotel is currently offering is a good price based on the average prices the hotel charges throughout the year.
There are many hotel search engines, including hotels.com and many others. Will this Google Hotel Finder last or will it die off with many of the other Google experiments? I am not sure but I bet you many of the hotel search engines are a bit worried.
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- Google Testing Hotel Prices In Google Maps
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It is too early to say whether or not Google’s Hotel Finder would pose a threat to the different hotel search engines currently available. If at all, it may actually lead to their benefit.
Majority of travelers do their search for hotels by typing in a particular landmark or address in the search box provided by many online travel sites, a feature that is not yet available at the Google Hotel Finder. Travelers can use the hotel finder to make a shortlist of hotels that are well within their budget. Since the hotel finder shows a list of the different websites where a hotel can be booked, the traveler can go to the site that offers the lowest possible rate for the hotel and do a search using a particular attraction or landmark they want to see or need to visit. They can then trim down their shortlist based on their distance until they are left with the best hotel to book.
Of course, if Google does include a landmark or address search option in their hotel finder, that would be a completely different story, which makes it quite interesting to see how their new service will develop in the coming weeks and months.