Google moves hotel pricing chart into the SERP
By improving the consumer travel-search experience Google is also going after a larger share of travel-ad spending.
Google is starting to show hotel price charts in search results. These graphs have been a popular feature of Google travel properties and were tested in search last year.
Price graph moves into search. Here’s a SERP for the query New York Marriott Marquis that includes the price chart:
Searchers can use arrows to move forward and back in order to see historical pricing trends for particular hotel properties.
Asked to comment, a Google spokesperson told us, “Our research has shown that travelers are looking primarily for price and availability information when searching for a hotel. To make our hotel search experience more useful for travelers and better connect them with travel providers, we are surfacing more price and availability information on the search results page.”
The original tip came from Damian Rollison of Brandify.
Why you should care. Google has been upgrading its various travel properties at an accelerating pace. At Google Marketing Live two weeks ago the company announced a consolidated travel planning tool called Trips. Earlier, in March, Google introduced a new Hotel search and booking site which includes vacation rentals. And late last year, a new look for the Hotel Local Pack rolled out.
Travel is a critical vertical, worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually in consumer and business travel spending, according to the U.S. Travel Association. Digital ad spending by travel brands is expected to exceed $9 billion in 2019. Google’s travel property upgrades and enhanced search results are part a bid for more of those ad dollars, as the company captures an increasing share of consumer traffic and conversions.
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