Google said it will be strict in enforcing accurate pricing for lodging listings on Google, both for ads and free booking links. There is no policy change but they will have a "higher standards for price accuracy."
Google wrote, "To significantly improve user trust and experience, we will start removing more inaccurate prices from being shown on Google for both ads and free booking links. While our policies remain the same, we are implementing higher standards for price accuracy."
Here are the three bullet points given by Google on this notice:
- Increased Filtering: Prices with consistently poor accuracy may not be shown to users.
- Improved User Experience: More accurate prices lead to improved user experience and trust both on Google and on partner sites.
- Impact on Traffic: Partners with historically lower price accuracy may notice a decrease in traffic from both ads and free booking links, as more of their inaccurate prices are filtered. Conversely, partners with high price accuracy may notice an increase in traffic.
So it is important you make sure your lodging/hotel listings have accurate pricing.
Google said, "We encourage partners to review the "Pricing" section of your Hotel Center account to help identify and address any price inaccuracies, including price mismatch examples and insights into the drivers of inaccuracy." "Improving price accuracy is the best way to ensure prices are eligible to appear on Google," Google added.
You can also view the impact of low price accuracy in the Participation Report under the “Poor price accuracy” column in Google Hotel Center.
Forum discussion at X.
