Google Hotel Ads by Odysys
Commission-Free Direct Bookings from Google
Your Next Step on the Road to Commission-Free Bookings Starts Here
Odysys is the first to bring Google Hotel Ads to all independent bed & breakfasts, inns & boutique hotels at an affordable price.
Features & Benefits of the Google Hotel Ads by Odysys Service
Commission-Free Direct Bookings
Compete with OTAs like Expedia in Google results and get direct bookings. Drive bookings straight from Google with real-time rates, availability and an “Official site” label.
On Your Booking Engine
With Google Hotel Ads, guests book directly with you in your own booking engine. You own the guest booking experience from the start and get direct bookings for your property without paying commissions!
Trackable Return on Investment
Guests book directly on your website, and Google Analytics shows you exactly how many bookings and how much revenue come from your Google Hotel Ads!
Hassle-Free
You didn’t get into innkeeping to be a tech wizard! Odysys handles everything when you sign up. We connect with your booking engine (works with almost any booking engine), feed your rates & availability to Google, and manage your bids.
Never Before Available
This program is TOTALLY DIFFERENT than the Google Ads keyword ad programs you’ve seen in the past.
Odysys is the first to bring Google Hotel Ads to innkeepers in an affordable way. We put in the work to bring together the technology and the business model to make this program available to any bed & breakfast, inn or boutiqe hotel so that you can take more control over your direct bookings strategy.
Simple to Understand Pricing
- One-Time Setup Fee: $149**
- Monthly Management Fee: $99/month
- Monthly Click Budget: Starting at $100/month
You set the budget, any unused click budget rolls over to the following month.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t use an OTA – Google is already showing a message like “we don’t have any information about rates & availability for this property”. It’s kind of a negative message, and your property won’t display quite as highly in Google’s Hotel Finder results. (that map of properties in Google results) This program solves that by giving Google rate & available information and the opportunity for guests to make a direct booking. The bonus is – you won’t be competing against OTAs for your own property, so your click budget will go a long way! This is one way to drive more direct bookings and be more competitive.
We totally get that you don’t want to use OTAs. Google Hotel Ads by Odysys is an excellent way to reduce your reliance on OTAs, take advantage of the “billboard effect” generated by OTAs, and drive commission-free direct bookings. For some properties, you may be able to do away with OTAs using the Google Hotel Ads by Odysys program.
If you do choose to start winding down your OTAs after launching this program, we recommend an approach where you wind down your programs over time and find a balance.
OTAs like Expedia or Booking.com can definitely have their place. They can generate awareness for your property and help drive direct bookings via the “billboard effect”. In most cases – OTAs are a useful channel for driving bookings and filling rooms when you cannot do it yourself. But the mistake a lot of innkeepers make is that they don’t manage their OTAs strategically.
Google Ads or what used to be called Google AdWords is where you bid on a keyword, create an advertisement with ad copy and people click on it to go to your website. The ads appear for whatever keyword you may be bidding on and you pay when someone clicks to view your website.
Google Hotel Ads is a totally different program. The ad is a specific rate & availability link that appears when someone is doing a search specifically for lodging properties in your area and is using Google’s “hotel finder” tools to find a property to stay at. (that map of hotels/B&B’s that shows up in Google results). You still pay per click, but there are no keywords, there is no ad copy to create. We set it up so Google has real-time access to your rates & availability and shows your ads when your property meets the guest’s search criteria and when you have click budget available.
Google AdWords is a nice compliment to this program. It can be used to generate demand for your property and get clicks that become bookings. Google AdWords ads are also great for branding, and have placements in search results that Google Hotel Ads by Odysys does not. Google Hotel Ads by Odysys are much more ‘transactional’ in nature, and the return on investment is typically quite high. We always recommend spending your marketing dollars on programs that generate a profitable return on investment. Google Ads/AdWords + Google Hotel Ads by Odysys are better together but you can do one without the other.
Our technology partner can pull rates & availability from just about any booking engine.
As we connect with your booking engine and begin the sign-up process, our technology partner will verify whether they already have access to the booking engine’s rates & availability. If they don’t, they’ll make every attempt to partner with your booking engine or worst case, they’ll even just scrape rates & availability. There are very few that they cannot work with. If yours is one of the rare systems that we cannot work with, we will advise you at the beginning of the process and you won’t be obligated to pay obviously. We can also advise you on more compatible options for your booking engine.
As of August 1 2019, the Eviivo booking engine is one of the few we are unable to work with. Otherwise we haven’t run into any others that we cannot work with to date.
Your program subscription can be paused when you aren’t open, and your program can be restarted before you open. However, keep in mind – Google uses your existing rates & availability so if you’re closed, they won’t be showing ads for when your property is closed. The ads will only be shown when the dates that the potential guest is looking for match your availability, and you only get charged when people click on the ad to make a booking. Because of this, we advise leaving the ad program running most of the time and any unused click-budget will roll-over to the following month. So you can ‘bank’ some funds during the offseason if your ads aren’t getting clicked on, and then have that available for when people are searching and booking.
We are currently working to display the ads in TripAdvisor, Trivago and Kayak.
Yes. Google Hotel Ads by Odysys can work for any country but China currently.
Hopefully we’ll get the broad strokes here.
Keep in mind – we work on your program to make it as efficient as possible and drive the best results and return on investment possible. You don’t have to do anything except set a budget. We work with you on that and then we take care of everything else.
- Google Hotel Ads by Odysys is a pay per click (PPC) program – AKA cost per click or CPC.
- We work with you to define a click budget that can work for your property, but we require a $100/month minimum. You can adjust your click budget at any time. We will make recommendations based on performance.
- Any click budget you do not end up using will roll over to the following month (and the month after that).
- How much do clicks cost? There is no typical cost per click. Google charges “a percentage of the room price per night when a traveler clicks on your ad.” So what is the percentage? Typically in the 1%-2% range. There are a number of factors involved in terms of how that percent is set and managed. That’s our job – to determine what the bidding strategy needs to be in order to get your ad seen and clicked on to generate bookings. We optimize those bids based on your budget, the return on investment, etc.
- Keep in mind – your ads ONLY display when your property meets the searcher’s criteria when they are using Google’s hotel search. They put in the dates they want, the rate they’re willing to pay, the amenities they want, etc. If your ad displays and you get a click, it is because your property has availability on those dates and meets the searcher’s criteria. They go directly to YOUR booking engine where they’ll also have the opportunity to purchase add-ons or extras etc.
- For maximum effectiveness – make sure your Google Business Listing is optimized with your property’s amenities and we encourage you to utilize our Local Search Marketing service for optimal visibility in Google hotel search.
Our customers have been experiencing some pretty exciting results!
The average return on investment is 10x ($1 in = $10 out) with some campaigns performing MUCH higher.
The average click through rate on ads is 65% – and those clicks go directly to the booking engine
Tip: Add a retargeting advertising program (also available from Odysys) to really amp up the results!
Every property is different, and we’ve found that your booking engine choice and its conversion rate has a direct impact on performance. Some are just better than others at turning clicks into bookings. But even in those cases, the return on investment for Google Hotel Ads exceeds that of every other marketing & advertising campaign
- After you complete the signup form, we’ll add the subscription to your current Odysys account. If you aren’t a current Odysys customer, we’ll send you a link to add your billing information and create an account.
- The next step is to wait a bit. We’ll connect your booking engine (or let you know if there are technical limitations that prevent us from doing so, along with some options if that happens).
- Then we submit your connection to Google for an “official site” verification. This step can take a couple of weeks. At the conclusion of that, we’re able to run your ads.
- Our Google Hotel Ads specialist will reach out to you to let you know your official site verification process is complete and we’ll confirm your monthly ad spend amount, along with discussing any related strategy questions you have that can have an effect on your Google Hotel Ads performance. (For example: considering scaling back on an OTA, currently running TripAdvisor Trip Connect, etc.) We’ll also talk about how we’ll report results back to you so you can easily measure your return on investment for these ads. If needed, we can assist you in identifying how to see Google Hotel Ads performance in your Google Analytics or in your Odysys Performance Dashboard.
- Each month, we’ll provide a detailed analytics report for your Google Hotel Ads so you can make informed decisions regarding how this program fits in with your overall marketing plan. And, if you ever need support, we’re just a click away in your Odysys dashboard.
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