As a part of the Google ecosystem, Google Vacation Rentals has the potential to reach a vast audience of travellers who use Google's search engine to find accommodation options. By listing your vacation rental on Google, you can increase your visibility and potentially attract more bookings.Â
If you already have a listing on Google Vacation Rentals, go here for tips to optimise your Google Vacation Rentals Listing.
You need to follow a few steps to get listed on Google Vacation Rentals. Here's a guide to help you through the process:
- Create an account: Visit the Google My Business website (https://www.google.com/business/) and create an account if you still need to get one. If you already have a Google My Business account, proceed to the next step.
- Claim or create a property: Sign in to your Google My Business account and navigate to the “Properties” section. Here, you can either claim an existing property or create a new one specifically for vacation rentals.
- Provide property details: Fill out all the necessary information about your vacation rental property, including the property name, address, contact information, website, and other relevant details. Make sure to provide accurate and comprehensive information.
- Verify your property: Google will typically require verification to ensure the authenticity of your vacation rental. Verification methods may include phone verification, email verification, or a postcard sent to the property address containing a verification code.
- Optimize your listing: Once your property is verified, optimize your listing to attract potential guests. Add high-quality photos of your rental property, write a compelling description, highlight key amenities, and include any unique selling points to make your listing stand out.
- Manage availability and rates: To enable bookings through Google Vacation Rentals, you must connect your property's availability and rates. Google partners with various vacation rental management software providers, so consider using one that integrates with Google's booking platform.
- Monitor and respond to reviews: Regularly monitor and respond to guest reviews to maintain a positive reputation. Engaging with guests' feedback shows that you care about their experiences and helps build trust among potential guests.
- Stay up-to-date: Keep your property information current. Update details such as rates, availability, and property amenities as needed. Providing accurate and timely information enhances the guest experience and increases the likelihood of bookings.
Remember, Google Vacation Rentals is an evolving platform. As part of your overall direct booking site marketing, make sure to stay informed about any updates or changes to optimize your listing's visibility and performance.
Here are a few points to consider in order to get the most from your listing on Google Vacation Rentals.
Broad reach
Google is one of the most popular search engines worldwide, with billions of users. By listing your vacation rental on Google, you can tap into this large user base and reach potential guests actively searching for accommodation options.
Enhanced exposure
Google Vacation Rentals integrates with Google Search and Google Maps, increasing the visibility of your rental property to users conducting relevant searches. This exposure can help improve your bookings and occupancy rates.
Trust and credibility
Being listed on Google Vacation Rentals adds credibility to your property. Many travellers trust Google as a reliable source of information and may feel more confident booking a vacation rental listed on the platform.
It's important to note that the effectiveness of Google Vacation Rentals can vary depending on factors such as your rental location, the competition in your area, the quality of your listing, and your overall marketing strategy.
To better understand the current effectiveness of Google Vacation Rentals, we recommend conducting independent research, reading case studies, or reaching out to industry professionals for up-to-date statistics and insights.
How to Get Listed on Google Vacation Rentals: Video and Audio
Boostly Podcast Season 11 Episode 68. This is a recap of my Facebook live, where I talked about Google Vacation Rentals.
Here's the audio for this episode:
Here's the video for this episode:
Timestamp
00:00 Start
01:30 Google's announcement
02:00 About Google Vacation Rentals
03:00 New update on Google Vacation Rental
03:45 Google Form
Transcript from the Episode
I've got some news for every single one of you. So over a course of the previous couple of weeks, obviously Google have announced that they are going to let hosts just like you include your link to your website in your Google business listing. Well, I've got some updated news now how people who have got rental accommodation can get their listing in on that Google business listing page that we so need.
About Google Vacation Rentals
What I want to do today is I just want to explain to you about Google vacation rentals. So for anybody here who's got a vacation rental, service, accommodation, business rental accommodation, you'll know, that it is very hard to get your business listed on Google business listing.
Most importantly, the reason being is that Google, they really don't like having vacation rental properties on their maps, because their their ruling is in our T's and C's state that you have to have a physical check-in to be listed on the property. This is why bed and breakfasts are allowed. And this is why hotels are allowed.
And so what hosts have been doing is they've been still being listed on Google business listing. And I've just been having a postcard sent to the vacation rental, and they just then go and collect it or the cleaner will collect or the property manager will collect it. And then when that postcard comes in, it's got a verification code on you put that in and off you go.
New update on Google Vacation Rental
Now what's going to be happening. And this isn't being confirmed, but you can pretty much see it how it will work is that Google will start removing all vacation rentals, cottages, those types of units from the Google business map. Now you before you start going off, this is so unfair, they are going to start listing Google Vacation Rentals because they know how important this is to their ecosystem.
And because again, what is going to happen eventually, is that everybody will have a free link to their website so they can book direct with you in the Google Map. Now the way that they're going to do this and have started to slowly roll it out is they're going to be able to offer for vacation rentals to be on the map as well.
Google Form
Now, I have discovered that there is a Google form that everybody can go fill in now. But you can submit your interest to be one of the first to get listed. So the Google Docs link is very long. So I've put a little Pretty Link on it. So all you need to do is to go to boostly.co.uk/GVR.
And you will just submit your property details to that.
Now, I've told the Boostly Academy members about this about three weeks ago, a lot of people hundreds of people have gone on and submitted their property.
They are yet to hear anything, but I recommend that you do it sooner rather than later. Because what will happen is that Google will be basically slowly rolling this out to everybody that applies first, and then you'll be a kind of beta tester I recommend I recommend and then from there, it will get rolled out to everybody. So if you want to be part of the first this is really important to do it sooner rather than later.
This is the transition. This is the switch of Google allowing vacation rentals, service accommodations on their platform. And I'm really excited to see what happens next.
