Searching For Hotel? Google Pushing Google Hotel Finder

Nov 23, 2012 - 8:31 am 9 by
Filed Under Google Ads

I dare you to search for a hotel in Google. Try searching for [hotels new york] or [seattle hotels] or [hotels in tel aviv] and I challenge you to not find a Google Hotel Finder "sponsored" listing right below the Google AdWords ads and right above the Google organic search results.

click for full size

There is a screen shot of me removing the 2 or 3 AdWords ads, just so I can clean up space here on this post. Note, you can click on the image to enlarge.

These started popping up in the Google search results last December but recently they have been coming up more and more often - virtually for all hotel travel based searches.

A WebmasterWorld thread has many SEOs and Webmasters not happy. Of course, those who are in the hotel aggregation business are not happy. But some searchers are not happy also.

As Tedster said:

My travel plans are too critical for me to trust them to sites that try to survive through SEO alone. Maybe I just know too much about the space. Travel is a space where I really want some kind of brand.

I currently agree, I cannot see myself booking a hotel room with Google. But I can see that changing - if Google keeps pushing it.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 18, 2025

Jul 18, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June Core Update Done, Local Ranking Update, AI Mode Updates & AI Calling Businesses

Jul 18, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Maps

New Google Business Profile Check Edit Status

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Login Service Pages Are Hard To Rank In Search

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google AI Overviews For Movie Queries

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Rolling Out Smart Bidding Exploration To Some Advertisers

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google Maps Has Street Views Of The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade