You know that the Airbnb and vacation rental industry has made it big when Google joins the game. First, they added maps, then they added public transportation and flights. They then took it to the next level will their now popular hotel search. Google has now decided to hit the vacation rental market and promote it as well. When hotels in a certain location are searched, Google will add a pop-up asking if you’d rather search for vacation rentals instead.
Most vacation rentals are run through individual vacation rental booking sites. As the industry became more competitive, searchers needed to use a third party site, such as VRBO, and HomeAway, in order to find a larger selection of vacation rentals in specific cities. Now with Google’s vacation rentals prompt, with just the click of a button you can go from searching hotels to searching short-term and vacation rental properties. You can search by location, date, and accommodation type.
This has not been released in all destinations as of yet. Google may be in trial mode or rolling out this new feature slowly. As of now, OTAs have been buying the top places on Google search, in order to appear right under the hotel or B&B property’s name.
Here is how Guesty comes into the picture
When Google joins the game, you must play by their rules. When it comes to SEO, you must find ways to rank higher through Google’s vacation rental searches. Each and every property manager can have the ability to create their own booking website through Guesty and turn their listings into a profitable channel through a highly optimized and SEO friendly booking website. With this feature, property management companies can tailor their site to appeal to their target audience and turn it into another profitable channel.
Property managers can create their own custom domain with their company’s name, as well as optimized HTML coding including SEO elements such as titles, subtitles and paragraph content This sleek website design has a high-speed loading time that can be accessed internationally. Through website customization, listings can be included or excluded from the website, company social media pages can be linked, and Google analytics codes can be input. The marketing tools that come along with this personalized booking website will help you get higher Google ranks.
As the Airbnb and short-term rental industry continue to grow, Google is looking for more ways to cash in. With over 7,000 vacation rental listings in various European cities, Google is currently using Priceline’s Booking.com platform to book these stays. As Google prepares to go up against Airbnb, Expedia, HomeAway and other OTA’s, the market is expected to reach $34 billion by the end of 2017.
Guesty’s talented marketing team is comprised of passionate professionals who share insightful industry knowledge and shape brand narratives. By bringing a diverse blend of expertise to the table, we are the visionary architects behind the Guesty brand and innovative campaigns that help people understand our product.
