Travelers will
find, book, and
trust your hotel
All Things Google:
A Guide For Hotels
TrustYou is on a mission
to improve the travel experience, from finding the right hotel
to having the perfect stay. We work with hotels, destinations,
and travel websites to make that happen. TrustYou analyzes
hundreds of millions of travel reviews scattered across a vast,
fragmented market and transforms this content into actionable
insights and visualizations that enable travelers to improve
their trip planning and industry players to upgrade their offerings.
All Things Google:
A Guide For Hotels
TRUSTYOU RESEARCH | THE GOOGLE E-BOOK
TRUSTYOU RESEARCH | ALL THINGS GOOGLE: A GUIDE FOR HOTELS
CONTENTS
Introduction
6
Chapter 1
8
Chapter 2
14
Chapter 3
19
Chapter 4
21
Chapter 5
24
About TrustYou
27
Why Google Reviews Matter and How You
Can Influence Them
Direct Bookings Aren’t Dead: A Strategy for
Better Organic Rankings
Google Hotel Ads: What Hotels Need to
Know
Meta-Reviews: Changing the Way Travelers
See Hotels
Mobile is the New Black: Google Trip Planning
TRUSTYOU RESEARCH | THE GOOGLE E-BOOK
Introduction
In the last year, Marriott purchased Starwood; Expedia acquired
Travelocity, Orbitz, and HomeAway; Airbnb was valued at an
astounding $25.5 billion; and TripAdvisor and Google dove
headlong into the instant booking realm. While the latter may
seem like the least noteworthy of the travel news, Google’s instant booking feature is, for hotels, among the most important.
Here’s why.
Google owns the top 75% of the search engine market and has
78% of the mobile market share. The 2014 Traveler’s Road to
Decision showed that 61% of traveler inspiration starts with
search engines, with 57% of leisure travelers and 64% of business travelers reporting that they always begin their travel
booking and shopping process with search. Meantime, brand
sites and apps are less important to travelers than they once
were when it comes to booking accommodations.
•
•
•
61% of traveler inspiration starts at search engines
60% of leisure travelers site search engines as their top
source for travel planning
57% of leisure & 64% of business report: “I always start my
travel booking and shopping process with search.”
Google was already a heavy weight in several areas of hotel
marketing, but the addition of instant booking, called Book on
Google combined with commission-based advertising as well
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as fresh travel planning interfaces is bringing together all aspects of the travel planning journey. At some point, every traveler will likely cross over to Google during the planning process.
Consider:
1. Travelers, who begin searching on Google more often than
not, are presented with paid ads in the above-the-fold results, followed by Google hotel listings, which click into Google Maps. (Google Hotel Finder has been phased out, but
Google continues to host meta-search in the search results
as well as in maps.)
2. Below-the-fold are the organic hotel results, which, even in
their second-tier position, are increasingly challenging for
hotels to achieve.
3. OTAs are paying Google for booking presence on their hotel
interface; all the while Google is competing directly with the
OTAs by offering instant booking to hotels.
4. While OTAs and big hotel brands have the budget and marketing power to appear prominently in any of the above scenarios, for small and medium size hotels, a Book on Google
presence may be the most direct way to reach the traveler.
5. And either way, a presence across all of these categories
is quickly becoming essential, because traveler behavior is
changing. Travelers are searching in hundreds of “micro-moments” (as many as 400 for a single trip) on multiple devices across a variety of channels, according to Think With
Google’s Four Mobile Moments Changing the Consumer
Journey.
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Hotels must be empowered across categories and interfaces to
boost visibility to drive the most profitable channel mix. At the
end of the day, a substantial presence combined with excellent
reviews will increase new guest acquisition in a market made
increasingly more competitive by the entrance of peer-to-peer
accommodations and vacation rental inroads (e.g., Fortune reported in February 2016 that only 40% of travelers who reported they had used Airbnb preferred traditional hotels versus 79%
of travelers who had not used Airbnb or similar peer-to-peer
lodging).
The following chapters explore all things Google for hotels,
including strategies for boosting your presence and increasing
direct and OTA bookings.
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TRUSTYOU RESEARCH | ALL THINGS GOOGLE: A GUIDE FOR HOTELS
Chapter 1
Google Reviews: Why They Matter
& How You Can Influence Them
With the vast majority of travelers beginning their trip planning
on Google and 95% of travelers reporting they use reviews to
decide where to stay, a hotel’s image on Google is essential.
Travelers are moving through hundreds of moments across
desktop and mobile to locate the perfect destination with the
ideal hotel and the flight with best price at the right time. A traveler’s first impression of a hotel will more often than not be the
result of a Google search—possibly in PPC, possibly an organic
listing, possibly through Google hotel results, and in all cases,
reviews are now available. Prominently available to offer up a
first impression. As philosopher John Locke said, “From the
very first instances of perception, some things are grateful and
others unwelcome to us; some things we incline to, and others
we fly.”
Avoiding flight. Of travelers, that is. This is one among many
reasons to reflect on and improve your hotel’s reviews on Google. Volume of reviews builds confidence among travelers (e.g.,
if a traveler is considering two similar properties and one has
2000 reviews while the other has only 40, this implies something about traveler enthusiasm for the hotel as well as the
volume of previous visitors). Excellent star ratings, especially
relative to competition, sells your brand—and some studies
show that better ratings may reap higher rates.
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In a 2014 study by Software Advice, 30% of respondents said
they would pay a little more for a hotel with better reviews, 3%
said they would pay a lot more, and 3% said they would pay
twice as much or more. And sentiment scores, which break out
ratings and comments based on different aspects of a property
such as rooms or amenities or location, help travelers hone in
on their particular needs, ultimately facilitating a match between the right traveler and the right hotel.
Image: Travel Weekly
The benefits go beyond engaging travelers at the first impression. According to Google, “Google review count and scores
are also factored into local search ranking—more reviews and
positive rankings will improve a business’s local ranking.”
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TRUSTYOU RESEARCH | ALL THINGS GOOGLE: A GUIDE FOR HOTELS
Greater Google visibility along with increased credibility among
travelers is the Holy Grail of hotel marketing in an age where
guest acquisition costs are climbing faster than revenue.
HOW TO INFLUENCE REVIEWS
When planning a strategy for visibility, few hoteliers will aim
to drive more reviews. Most will consider reviews a project of
maintenance, one in which the hotel monitors and responds to
reviews as they arrive. However, with TrustYou Stars the option now exists to influence the volume and quality of Google
reviews, impacting visibility among travelers—and naturally
increasing the opportunity for conversions.
TrustYou Stars empowers hotels to enhance their review content and drive more reviews directly to Google. Better yet, these
review details are summarized into a Meta-Review to make understanding important hotel details simple for travelers. Using
TrustYou Stars, hotels may opt to push survey reviews directly
to Google. Reviews from TrustYou Stars are also displayed on
Google as full text reviews below the Meta-Review summary.
(Meta-Reviews are also displayed on other travel partner sites.
See Chapter 4)
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Hotels have seen dramatic Google review volume increases
right away, and many find their review score increases as a
result of proactive outreach to guests.
• Meininger Hotels saw 200% more Google reviews than in all
of 2014 after just a few months using TrustYou Stars.
• Ayres Hotels has seen a 4% increase in its TrustScore
(TrustYou’s overall review score) alongside a 3000% increase in the volume of their Google reviews.
• B&B HOTELS saw a 2.5% increase in its Google score in just
two months using TrustYou Stars and attributes increased
conversion rates to these improved scores.
Anna-Karin Daute, eCommerce Consultant at B&B HOTELS,
says, “Using TrustYou Stars, we have seen a 740% increase in
Google reviews, which has helped our properties to grow their
presence on Google and significantly increase click through
rates.”
Hotels with the option to participate in Instant Booking, which
features both TrustYou Meta-Reviews as well as Google reviews, which are powered by TrustYou Stars, benefit from commission-free bookings delivered directly to the property. Not
only does this make the booking likely more profitable than that
of an OTA, according to Oliver Heckmann, Google’s VP of Travel
in an interview with Skift, “We want the… hotel, or the OTA to
own the customer relationship. The difference is that conversion happens on a Google-hosted page… the advantage
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TRUSTYOU RESEARCH | ALL THINGS GOOGLE: A GUIDE FOR HOTELS
of that is it’s easier to convert.” Hotels that own guest relationship (and data) have long-term guest marketing in front of them
and repeat guest revenue potential.
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Chapter 2
Direct Bookings Aren’t Dead: A Strategy
for Better Organic Rankings
Where are the organic rankings these days? Pay-per-click results followed by Google’s hotel listings trump organic search
results in most competitive markets. There are still 10 of them,
but they are the least prominent real estate on Google.
Above the fold desktop results for Berlin hotels
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TRUSTYOU RESEARCH | ALL THINGS GOOGLE: A GUIDE FOR HOTELS
Above the fold mobile results for Berlin hotels
Despite the fact that the remaining results on a Berlin search
were occupied by review sites and OTAs, 30-35% of hotel website revenue is as a direct result of organic search engine referrals to a hotel website. It goes without saying that direct online
bookings continue to be widely regarded as a hotel’s most
profitable.
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With Google implementing routine algorithm updates, including
a Mobile-Friendly update that resulted in a marked decrease
in non-mobile-friendly URLs appearing in the top 30 organic
results, achieving an organic presence for mid-size and independent hotels has become an arcane goal. And the presence
needs to be front and center on the first page. As a 2014 study
showed, 71% of organic click-throughs occurred from the first
page of results.
Still, in order to thrive, hotels must drive as many of the highest
revenue, highest value reservations as possible. Part and parcel
to this is ensuring that wherever possible your hotel,
1.
2.
3.
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Appears for relevant keywords in your market
Ranks for variations on your name
Appeals to travelers and encourages click-throughs by an
attractive SERP listing
TRUSTYOU RESEARCH | ALL THINGS GOOGLE: A GUIDE FOR HOTELS
OPTIMIZE LISTINGS: INCORPORATING RICH SNIPPETS
Rich Snippets Containing Data from TrustYou
What are rich snippets? They are the stars, ratings, and
volumes of votes located just under the URL in a Google
search for a hotel. Additionally, as Google notes, a hotel’s
rich snippets when viewed in Google maps can include
keywords considered valuable by travelers.
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“Review snippets are algorithmically selected quotes from
Google users that provide information on the keywords most
mentioned by reviewers… Some hotels have review summaries
licensed from TrustYou, a third party. TrustYou creates review
summaries and aggregates scores using reviews from across
the web.” (Business descriptions on Google Maps)
TrustYou Meta-Review data, which can be included in rich snippets, improves a hotel’s SEO when incorporated on the property’s website, and TrustYou case studies have shown that when
a hotel integrates rich snippets it is able to outrank competitive
OTAs in the search engines.
Simply occupying a prominent organic result doesn’t guarantee a click-through. Far from it. Rich snippets—because they
feature a property’s star rating and volume of reviews—are a
branding tool. Like a persuasive note in SERP letting travelers know your hotel is worthy of taking a look at. With 90% of
consumers reporting that their buying decisions are influenced
by reviews, putting your rating-foot forward before the traveler
ever needs to visit a review site makes nothing but sense.
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TRUSTYOU RESEARCH | ALL THINGS GOOGLE: A GUIDE FOR HOTELS
Chapter 3
Google Hotel Ads: What Hotels Need
to Know
Traditional search ads—also known as Pay-per-Click—have
become almost entirely the domain of the Expedias and the
Starwoods. The rest of the world’s hotels do still have an opportunity for paid placement, however, through Google hotel ads.
Are hotel ads as effective as traditional search ads? Yes. First,
most hotels can’t afford traditional search placement anymore.
Further, Google notes that Hilton has seen a 45% conversion
rate increase and a 12% increase in ROI with hotel ads (compared to their traditional search campaigns), according to an
article by Think With Google.
There are two ad programs available to hotels. The more traditional pay-to-play (cost-per-click) model still exists, but this
is where OTAs price smaller properties out of the game. The
newest model is the Google Hotel Ads Commission Program,
which makes it “easier for hotels to list their properties directly
on its [Google] site — and to collect leads seamlessly on mobile
devices — while skipping middlemen like online travel agencies
(OTAs) and other metasearch sites.”
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Ultimately, the commission model means hotels can pay for
an actual reservation rather than for a click through, making
it more cost effective. Commission rates have not been published; however, a notable upside is that Book on Google, the
new instant booking program that sends direct bookings to the
property, is available to all Hotel Ads partners.
You might wonder what the difference is between a commission paid to Google and a commission paid to a traditional OTA.
It lies in Google’s aim that hotels continue to own the guest relationship. Booking.com’s recent move to withhold guest emails
from hotels illustrates the long-term importance of retaining
the guest relationship. Doing so, for hotels, means establishing
service levels with guests prior to check-in as well as creating
long-term marketing potential with a valuable lifetime guest—all
of which makes Google’s commission fees more palatable.
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TRUSTYOU RESEARCH | ALL THINGS GOOGLE: A GUIDE FOR HOTELS
Chapter 4
Meta-Reviews: Changing the Way
Travelers See Hotels
Google knows how travelers want to read reviews. So do Hipmunk, Sabre, and Kayak, to name a few. Meta-Reviews are the
new industry standard in travel reviews. In short, they are review summaries aggregated from verified travel reviews worldwide. They have a succinct and natural sentence structure
based on traveler keywords along with a rating for particular
sentiment categories, such as rooms, restaurant, comfort and
cleanliness, vibe, and location. A Meta-Review might read:
“Excellent design hotel. Close to Las Vegas strip. Good
shopping and sightseeing. Affordable parking. Popular
among couples.”
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TrustYou Meta-Review Above Google Reviews on Google Search
TrustYou’s Meta-Reviews power the review summaries on Google’s hotel search, as well as those across an array of OTAs and
meta-search engines. There is also a valuable crossover: many
OTAs publish TrustYou-powered Meta-Review information in
their Google search results, making travelers more likely to take
notice of your property. (While most hotels consider themselves
in competition with OTAs for bookings, widespread distribution
is essential in today’s market and the importance of staying
atop your competition on third-party sites can’t be over-rated.
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Between 2011 and 2014 OTAs market share increased 108%
for economy and mid-size hotels, 52% for upper-midscale and
upscale hotels, and 33% for upper-upscale and luxury properties, according to a study by Kalibri Labs).
Why should Meta-Reviews matter to hotels? Hotels have the
option to integrate Meta-Reviews to their own property website, enhancing the experience for users as well as influencing
search results. Travelers prefer reading bite-size, visually interesting summaries of a hotel as opposed to reading paragraphs
of text—especially when it comes to mobile devices.
Just as importantly, hotels can influence Meta-Reviews by delivering surveys to guests through TrustYou Stars. Case studies have shown that surveys delivered proactively to guests
increase reviews scores. In the case of Ayres Hotels, surveys
returned a 4% increase in TrustScore, TrustYou’s overall review
score. When surveys are integrated with Meta-Reviews and
Meta-Reviews are automatically distributed, this means that
a hotel’s image improves on the brand site, on Google’s hotel
listings, and across hundreds of different third-party sites.
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Chapter 5
Mobile is the New Black: Google Trip
Planning
This year, mobile travel bookings are projected to outpace desktop travel bookings for the first time. In 2014, mobile bookings
increased by over 36% and mobile revenue increased by 114%,
while nearly 21% of bookings, 17% of room nights, and 15% of
revenue came from tablets and mobile, according to
HeBS Digital.
The implications of travelers moving the planning and booking
process to mobile are vast: traveler behavior is changing with
what was once 6-12 websites per trip becoming hundreds of
moments across multiple devices. Traveler desire for succinct
information is growing. Decisions are based on collected bits
and pieces of detail rather than reviewing a lengthy website.
In February, Google rolled out a fresh trip-planning interface
specifically for mobile devices. According to Barry Schwartz,
“the results of the change make it really hard to get to the
organic web results” once you have gone down the Google
trip-planning path. The new interface feels like a beautiful mobile guidebook, complete with the option to book at every step
along the way.
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TRUSTYOU RESEARCH | ALL THINGS GOOGLE: A GUIDE FOR HOTELS
Hotels, take note. The importance of hotel listings in Google
has just increased once again. From Book on Google (via the
Hotel Ad Commission Program) to the presentation of Meta-Reviews, we anticipate that the move by Google to improve the
entire trip planning process will expand the potential for hotels
to generate revenue through the search giant.
PhocusWright estimates that in 2015, Google increased its
influence in the US online travel market, generating $155 billion
in revenue and accounting for 45% of U.S. travel spending. In
2016, Google’s travel restructuring process is clearly rolling out
and coming together—and crossing virtually every aspect of the
travel pathway, which will quite likely increase its share of the
travel spend this year. Hotels with a broad, but strategic, vision
for utilizing Google will capture some of the spend, too.
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TRUSTYOU RESEARCH | ALL THINGS GOOGLE: A GUIDE FOR HOTELS
About TrustYou
TrustYou is on a mission to improve the travel experience, from
finding the right hotel to having the perfect stay, and works with
hotels, destinations and travel websites to make that happen.
TrustYou analyzes hundreds of millions of travel reviews scattered across a vast, fragmented market and transforms this
content into actionable insights and visualizations that enable
travelers to improve their trip planning and industry players to
improve their offerings. Products include:
TrustYou Stars: An advanced guest satisfaction survey
tool that allows hotels to gain more reviews and
enhance their content on Google.
TrustYou Analytics: The world’s leading online reputation
management tool that allows hotels to analyze and
influence their online reputation.
TrustYou Meta-Review: Global review summaries of all
verified reviews written worldwide that are displayed
on hundreds of sites like Google, Trivago, KAYAK,
Skyscanner, Wego, Sabre GDS, as well as on hotel’s own
brand websites.
TrustYou Radar: A native mobile app available for iOS
and Android that allows hotels to connect with guests
directly from their mobile phone.
Hotels can register for a free 90-day trial of TrustYou Stars
here.
TrustYou Meta-Reviews only contain verified reviews and do not include reviews from TripAdvisor.
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[email protected]
www.trustyou.com