Google has added a new feature to their knowledge graph when the users are searching for a specific city. It now includes a link to hotels, including brief details about hotels available in the city, which then goes to a second set of search results showing available hotels in that city.
The new line of the knowledge graph includes the average stars the hotels, the average price for each star rating they list, along with the link to hotels.
The link goes to an additional search results page. So for example, if the original search is for “New York City”, the second automated search after clicking the hotels link in the knowledge graph goes to “New York City hotels”.
On the search result page are Google AdWords ads appearing on the top of the page, along with additional and showing in the right-hand sidebar. Then underneath the two top AdWords ads is an additional ad unit block, also sponsored, but which lists individual hotels on single lines. It is when clicking there that it takes you to the hotel booking calendar.
With Google’s recent launch of their redesign for research, it does raise the question about whether they plan to be offering something similar for hotels in specific cities as well. Just as flight search is competing against other sites such as Expedia, if they decide to do the same for hotels, it could be a huge player in the industry. Right now the hotel search is somewhat similar, but it doesn’t show the calendar with pricing by particular dates, which helps those looking for good deals with flexible travel dates.
For advertisers looking for bookings however, odds are that it not many people can you noticed this little hotel link in the knowledge graph. It’s not very prominent, it’s not flagged with the yellow ads tag, so it will likely go unnoticed by a large percentage of searchers, unless they are specifically reading the knowledge graph more detailed information regarding the city.
This is appearing for many users in different countries, so it is likely it is a full rollout rather than something Google is testing out.
If you run a hotel booking site, you probably should be thinking of alternate means of traffic however, if you are dependent on Google’s organic traffic, just in case they do expand hotel search like they did flight search.
Hat tip to Brad Brewer, Bill Slawski and Mike Blumenthal.
Jennifer Slegg
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