The New Changes to Google for Hotel Searches

In recent months, Google has undergone a fundamental change in the way it displays hotel listings in Europe. Due to the EU’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA), traditional organic search results have been reorganized.

If you’re a hotel owner or manager, the likelihood of losing direct bookings to platforms like Booking.com or Expedia is currently higher than ever.

To provide you with complete clarity, we’ve broken down the actual Google search results page into four main sections and show how your hotel can beat the middlemen.

ZONE 1: Google Maps & Local Pack (Map and Local Listings)

At the very top, Google displays an interactive map with price pins and a list of nearby hotels.

• The Problem: If your hotel doesn’t have the proper technical integration, prices from Booking.com will appear here, and guests will book through them, while you’ll pay a 15-20% commission to Booking.
• The solution: Through technical integration with Google Hotel Center (Free Booking Links) and optimization of your Google Business Profile, the price from your own website appears directly on the map labeled “Official Website.”

ZONE 2: Hotel Websites (Visual Carousel)

This is the newest and most prominent zone on Google, created specifically for direct hotel websites.

• The Problem: A lack of complete information about the hotel in the top positions of the carousel, which are visible to the user.
• The Solution: The results displayed here depend not only on the user’s search query but also on the availability of complete information on the website’s homepage, including details about rooms and amenities. The solution involves optimizing the domain, the price feed, and the booking module, as well as building a comprehensive technical architecture for the website. This way, the user clicks directly on your photo and is taken to your booking module without any intermediaries.

INTERMEDIARY ZONE (Booking.com, Expedia, and aggregators)

Right below the visual blocks, Google reserves space for the major booking platforms.

• The reality: These giants invest millions to bid on your hotel’s name and steal your regular guests.
• How we counter this: Since we can’t remove Booking.com from Google, we bypass them by capturing the user in Zone 1 and Zone 2 with a better price and a direct connection.

ZONE 3: Organic Results, Brand SEO, and AI Search Engines

• This is the classic list of websites, which now appears further down the screen.

• The new challenge: Users are increasingly turning to AI search engines (such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Meta Muse) to plan their vacations.
• The Solution: We embed special technical code (Schema.org microdata) that ensures your site appears first when users search for your hotel’s name and that AI search engines can parse your prices, rooms, and amenities to recommend them directly to potential guests.

What does this mean for your business?

The era when it was enough to simply “have a website” is over. To maintain your direct sales and avoid giving away thousands of leva in commissions, your hotel needs full technical integration with the Google ecosystem and AI platforms.

Our team has prepared a free Hotel Readiness Scorecard (Readiness Audit) that tests the mobile version of your booking module, its responsiveness, and how prices are submitted to Google.

Contact us by email at [email protected] for a free assessment of your hotel and find out how to regain control over your direct bookings.