Use Google Hotel Center to Drive Your Direct Bookings

January 12, 2026

Google Hotel Center will be invaluable in your strategy to drive more direct bookings, here we explain what it is, how it works and how to ensure the data hub reads and presents your hotel's room data accurately.

What is Google Hotel Center?

Google Hotel Center is Google’s platform for managing the hotel rates and availability it displays across its platforms:

  • Google Search (hotel search results, "Hotels in [City]")
  • Google Maps
  • Google Travel

When travellers search for hotels in your area, or for your hotel by name, Google can then show:

  • Your hotel listing (photos, amenities, reviews, etc)
  • Your room types, prices, and booking options
  • Your Book a Room / Check Availability CTA buttons

Google Hotel Center ingests and manages your room data and prices so that these appear accurately and competitively within its interfaces. It connects your booking engine / channel manager / PMS with Google.

Key benefits:

  • More visibility when people search in Maps and Google Travel
  • More direct bookings if you connect your official site as a booking option
  • Better rate display: showing your room types, availability, and prices in real time
  • More control over what’s sent to Google (rates, room categories, policies, etc.)

Google Hotel Center is not its ad platform. It’s the data feed hub that shows your rates in the "Prices" section of Hotel Center using:

  • Free booking links (organic-style placements)
  • Paid hotel ads (CPC/CPA bidding in Google Ads)

How Google Hotel Center Works

1. You send feeds to Google that describe:

  •    Your hotel property (location, amenities, photos)
  •    Your room types (names, occupancy, descriptions)
  •    Your rates and availability (price per night, taxes, cancellation policy, etc)

2. Google processes this data and associates it with:

  •    Your Business Profile (Google Maps listing)
  •    Hotel listings in Google Travel

3. Travellers see:

  •    A list of offers (room + rate) from different partners: OTAs, metasearch engines, and your official website

4. When they click your official rate:

  •    They are taken to your booking engine to complete the reservation

3 Steps to Ensure Google Hotel Center Reads Your Hotel Data

  1. The technical integration that supplies room and rate data
  2. Verification and mapping of your property
  3. Configuration of your room and rate structures

1. The Technical Integration: How Your Data Gets to Google

Google does not scrape your website for room and rate data. You must connect via:

A Google-Certified Integration Partner

  •    Channel manager, CRS, PMS, or booking engine already integrated with Google (e.g., SiteMinder, Cloudbeds, Sabre, D-EDGE, etc).

Recommended because:

  •    The provider manages the feeds and technical requirements
  •    Less internal development work, which means quicker deployment

Direct integration via a Hotel Center API

This is a more advanced method that requires a developer who understands Google’s Hotel Ads / Hotel Center feed specs and who can build and maintain XML/JSON feeds for:

  •        Your property feed
  •        Your room & rate plan feed
  •        Your price & availability feed

We recommend this method for hotel chains or custom systems.

Thirdly, you can use Google’s own tools with a partner platform, especially if your booking engine offers a "turnkey" connection to Google for:

  •      Free booking links
  •      Hotel Ads campaigns through Google Ads

The first step is to identify whether your current systems (PMS / channel manager / booking engine) are already listed as Google hotel integration partners. If they are, use that.

2. Property Verification and Mapping

Google must be able to link your hotel to the data to your verified listing.

Ensure your Google Business Profile (Maps listing) is claimed and up to date:

  •   Correct name, address, phone, website
  •   Category: Hotel, Boutique Hotel, etc
  •   Photos, description, amenities

Property mapping:

  •   The integration or partner must map your internal property ID to Google’s hotel ID
  •   This ensures your feeds apply to the correct hotel listing

3. Room and Rate Structure Requirements

Your internal setup must be clean and consistent:

  • Clear, distinct room types
  • Standard Room, Superior Room, Deluxe Suite, etc
  • Each has its own ID and max occupancy
  • Rate plans mapped to room types:
    •   BAR (Best Available Rate)
    •   Non-refundable
    •   Breakfast included
    •   Member rate (if applicable)
  • Pricing & availability:
    •   Real-time or frequent updates
  • Clear rules for:
    •    Taxes & fees
    •    Cancellation and modifications
    •    Length-of-stay restrictions

The cleaner and more structured your rooms and rates are in your PMS/channel manager, the smoother the Google integration will be.

Act Now

Contact us today to ensure your business remains relevant in 2026 and beyond.

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