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+--- Thread: Book On Google ends (/showthread.php?tid=612)
Book On Google ends - lime - 05-03-2022
Dear Wubookers,
we would like to report here, for your information, a change within Google that may be
of interest to those of you who are also selling on Google using your Wubook BE inventory.
Many of you, in fact, have the Google channel on Zak or Google metasearch on Woodoo.
These properties currently appear on Google in three ways: Book On Google, Google
Commission Program and Google Free Booking link.
As You have probably already heard, at the end of the month, on 25 May, Google will turn
off the Book On Google service.
BOG was a booking process that, while drawing on the inventory of the properties' booking
engines, was graphically integrated into the Google platform.
Google will therefore shut down this sales method, which is clearly no longer profitable.
But this change does not affect the Google Commission Program and the Google Free
Booking link, and therefore does not affect the WuBook-Google connections already active,
which will remain active and continue to receive reservations!
Quite simply, from the end of May, Google will only provide hoteliers/hosts with one way to
sell rooms on its platform: the Web Site link. Through the Web Site link, guests are redirected
directly to the BE of the property, which will open on a different page with its own graphics.
This link will continue to be either sponsored (Google ADS) or free (Google Free Link): in both
cases the link is graphically the same, but obviously the visibility changes considerably from
one case to the other.
In the first case, the link already appears in the first price comparison table, the "Featured
Options" table, together with the paid ads.
In the second case, the link only appears in the second table, the one showing "All options".
From Wubook's point of view, these methods are completely irrelevant: we always provide
Google with the same data. Then Google presents it on its platform according to the
contracts chosen by the user.
That's it: from 25 May, only the link to the property's website (free or ADS) will remain,
without the booking interface integrated into the Google platform. Those who have an
active campaign on Book On Google will see their existing campaigns converted into
standard links to the proprietary websites.
Remember that on the Wubook side, in order to activate the connection with Google, it is
necessary to also have an active subscription to the Online Reception, since it is this that
will be opened by the Google links!
Google had launched the Book on Google option in 2015, at a time when the use of
mobile devices to book was beginning to overtake desktops, but the sites of many hotels,
and also of many OTAs, were not yet optimised for mobile; Google therefore set out to
offer a service that would bridge this digital gap. But now that most people prefer to book
directly on partner websites, either through the hotel itself or through an OTA, Google
decided to consolidate other avenues.
With the Google Free Link, hotels and OTAs can appear in the price comparison table
without the need for a paid campaign.
On the other hand, they will continue to invest in improving the hotel search tool and
integration of site links; and in September, Google also updated its search and booking
function for tours, activities and attractions with the launch of 'Things to do', a new offering
with booking links, both free and paid, from a wide range of 'experience' providers.
This project could replace 'Book on Google'.