Google taking on Airbnb

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
Frenchlady
Posts: 187
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 1:52 pm
Location: Dordogne
Contact:

Google taking on Airbnb

Post by Frenchlady »

Just seen an article on Facebook that Google are going to start up a rental site - starting with major towns. Just what we want another big company taking over and charging everyone commission and no doubt "cancel whenever you like"!!!!! No chance of getting on the 1st page of google now it is full of the big boys.
Igor
Posts: 61
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2017 4:27 pm

Post by Igor »

I don't agree that this is bad news!

If you Google for "Hotel Paris" and scroll down past the Adwords hits, you see a map with hotel pins and then Google's own hotel listings below.

Just at the top of those listings is a drop-down for "Accommodation type" which starts off as "Any" but you can change it to "Vacation Rentals". When you do that, the page re-loads and you get to see Google's first attempt at being a meta-search site for vacation rentals.

What nobody knows is whether it intends to be a meta-search or whether it is going to be more than that. One certain thing is that they have no way to easily and comprehensively collect the data to populate it. And this is why the first attempt is pretty lame by Google standards.

The equivalent hotels listings on Google are much better and they offer a link to the hotels' own websites. Imagine if they could do the same for rentals? That would be a good thing.

If they were to publish an API to allow rental owners to push their data to Google, then Google's own rentals listings would be really useable and the OTAs would be in for a rough ride. Bring it on, Mr Google!
Igor lives in Fort StaySavr, a secret location high in the mountains
User avatar
greenbarn
Posts: 6146
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 6:41 pm
Location: The Westmorland Dales, Cumbria

Post by greenbarn »

Right now, the scumbag listing sites that are fighting for world domination spend millions of dollars with Google. IIRC, Google are an investor in one of them, AbnB.
If Google became a direct competitor to Expedia, TA and AbnB, would those sites pull their spending with Google? Or would that amount to Corporate suicide?
Could/would Google offer a subscription listing to millions of independent owners, and what level of revenue would that generate for them?
How many independent owners would opt for an offering from Google that was a simple, here’s my website, no strings type of listing?
How many of those independent owners would dump Expedia, TA and AbnB tomorrow if Google offered that?
Given their reliance on Google, the best case scenario could be the total collapse of Expedia, TA and AbnB, pushing them to revert to the businesses they understand - ie not holiday rentals.
One thing’s for sure, the current situation is unsustainable.

Interesting times.
newtimber
Posts: 1945
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:57 pm
Location: Brighton
Contact:

Post by newtimber »

I realise this is an old thread, but finally it's happened! If you use Beds24 as your booking system, your property is listed in google search for holiday rentals and you can search by date to see properties available and see the map too just like all the other OTAs - and currently it's free with no commission!
Post Reply