Beds24 and Google: Vacation Rentals, free booking links and who can use them

What Google Vacation Rentals and free booking links are

Google Vacation Rentals are listings for apartments, houses and other rentals. Google says they appear alongside organic search results, in Google Maps and in the vacation rental filter of its lodging search, with rates, availability and a booking link (Google Hotel Center Help). Its free booking links “redirect users to book directly on your website, and there are no fees for Google-generated referrals or bookings”.

For hotels, free booking links are the unpaid links in Google’s hotel booking module, shown next to paid hotel ads. They are ranked by usefulness to travellers, nobody can pay for a better position, and Google takes no fee (about free booking links).

Hotel or holiday rental: which Google product applies?

Google asks three questions: do you have a front desk or on-site management, do you accept overnight guests, and are your property and business address listed publicly? Three yeses make you a hotel or a related category; a single no makes you “likely a vacation rental or outdoor lodging” (Google’s lodging categories). Bed and breakfasts and guest houses are among Google’s hotel categories.

Beds24 has a product for each case (Beds24 wiki):

Who is eligible

Holiday rentals. Google wants a furnished space, private to the guest, rented for short stays and cleaned between them. Its starter guide for property managers lists individual homeowners, peer-to-peer rentals, individual rooms and partial homes as not currently eligible. It is aimed at professional property managers with a direct booking website; below 500 properties, Google recommends an approved connectivity provider, and Beds24 describes itself as “an official Google partner”.

Hotels. Beds24 sums up Google’s conditions for Google Hotel Ads: rooms for paying guests, a fixed location open to the public, a front desk staffed during normal business hours, a minimum stay of no more than 7 days, and a Google Business Profile.

Beds24 adds a warning for hotels: “Beds24 has to be the booking engine used on your web site. If you use a different booking engine than Beds24 on your web site Google does not allow you to use Google Hotel Ads via Beds24.” Free booking links run through the same Google Hotel Ads setting in Beds24. If your website uses another booking engine, ours included, ask Beds24 whether this applies to you first.

How the Beds24 Google connection works

For a holiday rental, Beds24 sends Google your photos, prices, availability and descriptions, and Google builds a listing “with a direct booking link to your Beds24 booking page”. Beds24’s checklist:

1. List the property, or one of its rooms: only one room per property can connect.
2. Upload and activate at least 8 photos.
3. Complete the property details: name, address, postcode, city, state, country and exact coordinates. Each property needs its own address.
4. Let Beds24 send the data, then allow up to 14 days for Google to verify it. To check, search Google Travel’s vacation rentals for your area and dates.

For a hotel, start with a verified Google Business Profile. The name, address, phone number and coordinates in Beds24 must match it exactly, each property needs its own address and phone number, and matching can take Google a few weeks.

Settings that keep you off Google

• No 2-person price. Beds24 sends Google the lowest 2-person price from offers 1 and 2 of your direct prices. Without one, the room is sent as unavailable.
• Fixed price discounts. Discounts in the “Discounts” tab of fixed prices are not sent to Google.
• Minimum stays (hotels). Google Hotel Ads checks for a one-night stay on each date and usually treats the date as closed if there is none.
• Missing languages. Guests searching in a language your booking page doesn’t offer cannot book direct.
• A negative Beds24 balance removes your listing from Google until the balance is positive again.
• Price surprises. Google shows your price plus compulsory taxes and fees, and guests expect to pay exactly that on your booking page.

Where guests land, and why that page matters

Google sends the click to your Beds24 booking page, and Beds24 states that “redirecting to a different location is not possible”.

That page matters twice: Google ranks hotel free booking links partly on landing page experience and price accuracy, and Beds24 notes that “the conversion rate depends largely on the quality of your landing page”. Beds24 lets you set up a dedicated layout for Google, and suggests:

• your logo, or at least your property name;
• at least one high-quality photo per room;
• a header image or slider short enough for the first room to show without scrolling;
• contact details, your address and a map (the default Template 7 already has one).

Our guide to customizing the Beds24 booking page shows where these settings live.

How Google fits your direct booking strategy

A booking from Google is a direct booking: the guest books on your page, Google takes no commission, and Beds24 charges its usual channel manager fees. Like any other booking, it lowers availability in Beds24, and the Beds24 channel manager updates your OTAs.

Our Beds24 booking engine works on the traffic you control, such as your website’s “Book now” buttons and your emails; Google’s clicks still open your Beds24 booking page. Hotels should read Beds24’s warning above before combining the two. Also on Airbnb? See Beds24 and Airbnb.

Frequently asked questions