Why do I keep seeing non-existent rates being shown in Google for my hotel?
Pricing auctions with a twist
Google Hotel Ads (the rates that are shown on the right-hand side of the search results) is an auction with a twist.
The provider with the lowest rate holds the position in the rate pack, and pays less in click costs as a result. In other words, if you have a hotel with a rate of £100 and an OTA sends a rate to Google for £80 for the same hotel, the OTA gets charged less to hold its position in the rate pack. The hotel ends up having to spend more in order to hold the same position.
There are other factors that affect position, but top line, this is how it works.
Why does Google do this?
The logic on the Google side, for giving preferential treatment to the lowest rate, is that Google wants to guarantee that its users can always find the best deal with Google.
The trouble is that often that deal simply doesn’t exist (the low rate exists to game the advertising system) and for the hotel it means that they end up getting contacted by bookers that “saw a rate in Google” that then requires time and effort in-house to find and demonstrate that the rate simply does not exist.
Revenue Managers at hotels know the OTAs (and all those poorly designed click through websites) that are doing this.
But with this clarification perhaps it is now clearer the benefits of having the lowest rate in the Google Hotel Ads pack, and why sometimes it will be impossible for a Revenue Manager to set a rate that Google thinks is best for it’s users!
How can the rate be fixed?
At the moment very little.
Due to caching and updates to the rate feeds used by providers there is always easy deniability for pretty much any provider that gets them out of trouble– “sorry, it’s a problem with an old data feed”.
It’s why often you’ll see rates on a page that when you click through to a website are no longer there. Althought there are other reasons for this too!
Revenue Managers end up playing whack-a-mole because the moment they report it (which takes time), other providers pop up.
Google has got slightly better at making this less of a headache for hotels, but the whole reporting process needs to be carried out via a Google Hotel Centre Account. That means in practice that the hotel needs to collate all the information and then pass it to their Hotels Ads provider who can then raise a request themselves.
Here are the details of how you can report a Partner that has a price issue. [link]
Google Hotel Ads Management with a difference
Google Hotel Ads (GHA) should be used as part of an overall digital marketing strategy. Targeting options within GHA give hotels not-seen-before targeting opportunities much more in-line with Revenue Management strategy.
Booking Engines are the usual owners of Google Hotel Ads Management, and the problem with that is that often the hotel’s are dumped into an account with others that have completely different DNAs.
Your GHA strategy should be aligned with Revenue Management, it should be looking at your peak seasons and high yield countries, and it should also be being managed on a day-to-day basis.
Read about our Google Hotel Ads service, and reach out to receive more information on our unique service.
About the Author
Glyn Spencer Hopkins is the owner of Internet Affected and has been working exclusively with hotels and luxury brands for over a decade.
Internet Affected provides web marketing services tailored to the individual personalities of hotels; a complete range of digital services designed to help them take back ownership of their hotel brand from the OTAs. Specialized marketing solutions to increase guest loyalty, food & beverage bookings, events and wedding inquiries, clearly reported in straightforward language.
