Google adds price tracking features to flight search, hotel search and Google Trips

Google announced it has added features to help you plan your trips, flights and hotel stays for your vacations or business trips. Many of the features are around how you can save money or track prices for a travel destination. Google has been testing many of these features over the past month, so they may not appear new to some of our readers.

Google is showing new “tips” under the flight search results to show you ways to save money for that trip. Google says it uses “machine learning and statistical analysis of historical flights data, Flights displays tips under your search results, and you can scroll through them to figure out when it’s best to book flights.” Here is a screen shot:

Google may also display a new tip above search results when room rates are higher than usual, or if the area is busier than usual due to a holiday, a music festival, or even a business conference, Google added. You can also subscribe to email price alerts by opting into Hotel Price Tracking on your phone:

And Google released this price slider for hotel search filters on both desktop and mobile:

For more details on these new features, check out the Google Blog.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.