By The Hospitable Team
You may have heard that Hospitable recently launched a new integration with Google Vacation Rentals for Direct.
Our new integration with Google Vacation Rentals means you can increase your property’s visibility with the click of a few buttons, and at no extra cost.
By listing your Hospitable direct booking website with Google Vacation Rentals, travelers can discover your property by browsing relevant keywords in Google Search or searching for accommodation in Google Travel’s dedicated lodging search.
We recently held a Direct Q&A discussing some of our latest Direct feature releases, including Google Vacation Rentals, and plenty of questions came up on how the integration works, how to list on Google Travel and Maps, and who can access it.
Don’t worry if you missed that session where we answered all Hospitable Hosts’ questions, we’ve got a summary here covering all of the important FAQs we have been hearing from hosts, plus you can check out the recording on the Hospitable YouTube channel.
How do I list my property on Google Vacation Rentals, with Hospitable Direct?
Answer:
There are a few steps you need to take to tell us which properties to list on Google:
- Go to the Direct Channels page
- Check some or all of your properties to scope them to Google
- If you have multiple sites, select the site URL you would like to use for each property
- Save your changes
When you save new properties to Google Vacation Rentals, we will begin to sync your sites with Google so they can be reviewed according to their listing requirements. It can take up to two weeks before new properties appear on Google.
Pending: Your property will display a Pending badge while Google is reviewing it.
Live: Once your property is live on Google, you will see a green View on Google button. Click on the button to open the property’s Google Vacation Rentals landing page.
Issues: If there are any problems, we will display a yellow Issues badge. Hover on the badge to see the feedback from Google.
Do I need to have Direct Premium?
Answer:
No. Hosts using Direct Basic or Direct Premium can promote their property on Google Vacation Rentals.
Do I need to use a Hospitable website in order to use Google Vacation Rentals?
Answer:
Currently, our Google Vacation Rentals integration only works if you are using a Hospitable website with either a Hospitable domain or a custom domain.
We are working on supporting custom websites that use the Direct widget. As Google has strict requirements for landing page reliability (eg. correct URL, valid SSL certificate), we needed to wait to look at this until after the initial launch. We’re hoping to have a solution for non-Hospitable sites by the end of November.
Are there any other requirements for listing my property on Google Vacation Rentals?
Answer:
- A Hospitable site, no custom sites are supported yet
- Full short-term rental properties only; no private rooms, no hotels
- A Direct payout method
- A full address
- A summary of the property
- At least one amenity
- Minimum 8 high-resolution photos (recommended 20+)
- Must include at least one photo of living room, common area, and bathroom
- Recommended resolution: 1920 x 1080 px
- Maximum height and width: 4000 px
- Maximum size: 10 MB
- File format: JPG, JPEG, PNG, WEBP
- Orientation: Landscape
- No watermark or branding should be in the images
- The image order is auto-generated and cannot be changed
Is there an extra charge for listing my properties on Google Vacation Rentals?
Answer:
No. Google is currently offering the Vacation Rentals product for free, and Hospitable does not charge any additional fees for using our integration either. As long as you have Direct Basic or Direct Premium, you will be able to list your Direct properties on Google Vacation Rentals.
Get a direct booking website within minutes!
Will my existing guest reviews show up on Google?
Answer:
When your property is listed on Google, Hospitable will send your aggregated review score from your other bookings channels (Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com) through to Google to display across Google Travel and Search.
Can I re-order my listing photos on Google Vacation Rentals?
Answer:
We do send all of the images that you have associated with your properties to Google Vacation Rentals, in the order that we have them captured on the Property page. You can re-order those images to change the order in which they show up on your Direct site.
With Google, they do a bit of their own magic and try to show what they think are the most relevant photos based on a number of criteria, including the search query that the guest uses to view your property. It’s a bit like Google Search results, where they are trying to tailor results and the content to the specific guest in order to increase clicks.
Where does Google Vacation Rentals pull my nightly pricing information from?
Answer:
Pricing on Google Vacation Rentals will reflect the price on your direct booking website as that is where the guest will complete their booking.
Not all of my listings are showing on Google Vacation Rentals. How do I check that they will show up correctly?
Answer:
When you save new properties to Google Vacation Rentals, we will begin to sync your sites with Google so they can be reviewed according to their listing requirements. It can take up to two weeks before new properties appear on Google.
Pending: Your property will display a Pending badge while Google is reviewing it.
Live: Once your property is live on Google, you will see a green View on Google button. Click on the button to open the property’s Google Vacation Rentals landing page.
Issues: If there are any problems, we will display a yellow Issues badge. Hover on the badge to see the feedback from Google.
Can I see how many bookings I am getting through Google Vacation Rentals?
Answer:
We’re working on it. Shortly we’ll be adding performance data for our Google Vacation Rentals integration so that you can see how many bookings on your Hospitable website come from this channel.
If you have more questions about our Google Vacation Rentals integration or Hospitable’s Direct features, you can check out our collection of Direct help articles.
List on Google Vacation Rentals with Hospitable Direct
It’s finally here! It’s now even easier to grow your direct bookings while keeping more of your rental returns with Hospitable Direct. Our new integration with Google Vacation Rentals means you can increase your property’s visibility at the click of a few buttons.
Hassle-free Direct Bookings with Hospitable
Huge news! You can now boost your bookings outside OTAs without worrying about the admin hassle or the risk of unknown guests. All thanks to Hospitable’s new Direct offering that’s launching…now!
Join the best!
from 140+ countries
grow with Hospitable
Download now!
To know everything you need to run a successful STR business