How Google Travel platform can increase bookings
Table of Contents
Google Travel is like a pre-travel demo for a trip for anyone who is going to take one. When planning their trips, they mostly look for planes, hotels, and things to do.
Google Travel’s goal is to help users access these 3 different travel services at the same time, based on the results of their search queries. This is because the travel business is changing so quickly.
Google Travel not only helps people who use the internet, but it also helps travel companies by making them more visible to tourists online, bringing more people to their websites, and getting them to book directly.
We’ll explore how Google Travel works and share some tips on how to make the most of this tool. By the end of our chat, you’ll have a better understanding of how Google travel platform can increase bookings benefit your business and how to use it to its full potential. So, let’s dive in and get started!
Benefits of using Google Travel
Increased visibility for your travel services
Every day, millions of tourists use Google to look for flights and hotels, which make for a huge number of searches. So, having your travel services listed on Google Travel is a great way to reach a bigger audience, including potential tourists from both inside and outside the country.
In general, Google Travel is a lot like Google Search (in fact, the two are built into each other), since the site will show the results that match the user’s search terms.
But, it focuses on the travel industry with more advanced search bars like flight time or stay duration, the quantity of guests, and so on, and recommends the most appropriate information for the tourists’ needs.
Enhanced user experience for travelers
In the past few years, hotel processes have changed, but digitalization has also had a big impact on how we travel. This is true for the entire customer trip.
Except for the real trip, most of the travel experience now takes place online, including ideas, searching, booking, and reading reviews.
If a tourist doesn’t use a travel service to plan his trip, he will have to find and book each part of the trip separately. It could take a long time to find the best flight, the best place to stay, and the must-see sights.
Now, Google wants to give tourists a single place to find, compare, and manage different parts of their trips.
With this in mind, Google has been working on the Google Travel app to make it easier for travelers to use.
Along with organic search, Google Travel now works with Google Search and Google Maps.
With such a full interface for a trip, tourists can get totally and correctly personalized suggestions for where to go.
In fact, the word “personalization” is now associated with shopping online. That includes making trip plans online.
So, the process of booking has also been made easier and simpler. You won’t have to search for trip services one by one and book them in a complicated way that takes many steps.
Insights and analytics
Do you think it’s enough just to make customers see your travel services? No, Google Travel is more than that!
Are you getting your bookings as expected, exceeding your expectations, or is this year’s tourist season seems so bleak? All will be available on Google Travel Insights.
It is one of the newest things Google has made. Users who want to keep up with travel industry trends can get free information based on the demographics of countries, regions, and towns. This shows all the secrets of the tourism industry.
With Google Travel Insights, you can see how users’ tastes and how popular a place is change over time. So, it’s now easy to spot trends and growth chances in the travel business, which is very competitive.
Also, Google travel partners will be able to use dashboards and analytical results in a safe way.
The three most important reports are the Google Flight Reports, the Marking Reports, and the Travel Demand Explorer. They help travel companies keep up with how their customers’ interests and habits change.
Features of Google Travel platform
Google Flights
Google trips is now a way for people to look for trips. It shows all flights that fit the information you put in for the point of departure and the point of arrival, as well as the length of the flight, the number of passengers, and the type of ticket.
The customer can quickly look up and compare the best prices that each airline has to offer. Google Flights can also help if you’re afraid that the price of your flight might go up (or down). Google Flights Price Alerts lets you know when flight prices change. This is a great choice if you have to fly on certain dates but want to make sure you get the best deal.
The Google Flights Competitive Metrics study is very helpful for travel businesses, especially airlines, because it looks at how people book flights on Google Flights. The screen keeps track of how prices for Google Flights partners change over time.
Google Hotels
Google Hotels is like Google Flights in that you can look for hotels, compare prices, and book them online.
It shows all kinds of places to stay, like hotels and other vacation choices like homestays, villas, apartments, cruises, and so on.
Google works as a so-called search engine and looks at all the prices on the market before putting together a list of hotels based on the booking channel. Now, comparing prices is easy, right? If the guest needs to, they are sent to the hotel’s website or the right way to book online.
As for other information, Google Hotels plans to offer a full list of hotels with pictures, reviews, and details about what they have to offer. Google also has tools that make it easy to quickly compare prices and availability from different ticket sites.
Google Vacation Rentals
If you’re running a vacation rental business, you’ll want to ensure that your website is equipped with a high-quality booking system. The WordPress holiday rental theme is an excellent choice for this purpose, and can be seamlessly integrated with powerful tools such as Google Holiday Rental. With Google Holiday Rental, users can search and book vacation rentals directly from Google, offering a convenient and hassle-free booking experience. Plus, unlike similar tools like Airbnb, Google Holiday Rental doesn’t currently charge any fees. By leveraging the power of the WordPress holiday rental theme and Google Holiday Rental, you can maximize your bookings and revenue while providing an exceptional experience for your customers.
Google Vacation Rentals helps meet the growing demand for vacation rentals by giving tourists a thorough list of vacation rentals with information about the type of property, where it is, and how much it costs.
Its easy-to-use method lets travelers compare and find their favorite rental property quickly, saving them time that they would have spent looking through multiple websites.
How to optimize your travel services on Google Travel
Claim and update your Google My Business profile
Make sure you have a Google My Business page before you try to improve your travel services on Google Travel.
Make sure the information you add is correct and complete so that Google and other people will like your page. And don’t forget to make changes to your page often. When you use Google the most, it will give you more.
The customer experience is still the most important thing.
If your trip service is good, you have nothing to worry about. Right now, try to get as many of your customers as possible to leave reviews on your Google page. This could lead to bookings in the future.
But what should you do if you get bad reviews? Don’t ignore them; answer them in a sincere and responsible way.
Optimize your website for search engines
Start with your website’s information to improve its search engine optimization. Almost every marketing plan needs content that is both high-quality and useful. Then, what makes good content? This all starts with knowing the needs of your target group. (Don’t just make content for Google to read.)
But, be certain that your material does not just advertise your travel services. Focus on what you can do to help. For example, if you sell riding tours, you can post interesting facts about bikes and news about the ones you take care of on your blog.
Second, make sure your site is easy to use on mobile devices. Travelport did a study and found that the average American who travels for fun uses 7–8 different mobile apps.
So, it might be a good idea to spend money on a smartphone app with a flexible design and make sure it has the same features and functions as your website. You could also use the built-in features of mobile devices (GPS, click-to-call) to give users a better experience.
Use Google Ads to promote your travel services
Even though paid search engine ads are more expensive, they usually work faster than native traffic. Take your time to figure out who you want to reach and what buzzwords to use. This will get you in front of the right people at the right time.
Also, don’t forget to make your ads look good and get people interested. Focus on limited-time deals and one-of-a-kind discounts that play on people’s desire to not miss out. Tourists should be sent to landing pages that are made for each offer and have more information, helpful content, and clear calls to action.
And most importantly, you need to use Google Travel Insights to track how well each advertising effort is doing so you can make changes when you need to.
Real examples
Tour operators and activity providers
Hotels and accommodations
Vacation rental managers
Conclusion
The problem for any online travel company is to persuade customers at each stage of the conversion funnel.
Google Travel should really be the go-to option for supporting your travel business and improving the tourist experience. It’s far better than any other platform, with more features that can help you drive more bookings to your travel company.
The icing on the cake would be to show on Google Travel, by which time you would have proven yourself as a visitor destination in your own right. You’ve gone through the whole guide on How Google Travel Platform can increase your bookings? If yes, jump in and start a new marketing campaign now.
