Google gets a leg up on the competition with concierge-like search feature

Google is continuing its expansion into the vacation rental and apartments sector by offering a special, which includes specific rates, photos, reviews, and a Google Search map, to put it above the competition.

With the alternative accommodations sector one of the fastest-growing segments in travel around the world, Google’s move is an assertion that it will be a major force.

Previously, listings looked like any other results in Google search or they were tucked into hotel search within Google’s new one-stop shopping platform, Google Trips.

However, now In Google search on desktop and mobile, if you search for vacation rentals in Chicago, Singapore, Mexico City, or London, for example, the keywords will trigger four results in a box from vendors including Vrbo, Agoda, Red Awning, Hotels.com, Expedia, Vacasa, Rentals United, and others.

Prominently missing in action from the roster of Google vacation rentals participants is Airbnb.

While a vacation rentals search in Google produces a display of listings very similar to the way Google treats its own hotel business, there is an important difference — for now. When the user clicks or taps on a vacation rental and navigates to the next page on Google Trips, there is no auction among competing companies in vacation rentals as there is with hotels. Instead, for each vacation rental or apartment, users see a listing from only one company.

Read more here

Join us November 12-15 for the Property Portal Watch Conference Madrid 2019.