Google lets booking sites show some guests a lower price for your room
On six of eight hotel cards we opened, the cheapest price was a customized one, marked only by an asterisk
by Markus Busch
Google has a rule for this, and it is written down. On its help page on private rates, Google tells booking sites they can show hotel travelers "customized prices." The price can change with the device the traveler uses, with whether she is signed in to a Google account, or with whether she is on one of the booking site's own audience lists. In the EU, Google marks these prices with an asterisk. That is the only disclosure.
What it looks like on your card. Hotel Torbräu in Munich, opened on Google Maps from inside the EU on the morning of October 13. The hotel's own website asks €248 for the night, with free cancellation. trivago DEALS asks €175, non-refundable, with an asterisk. Under the list, one line from Google: the booking partner personalized this price based on factors such as the type of device.
6 of 8 cheapest prices were customized. We opened eight independent hotels' cards in Munich, Vienna, Zurich and Lisbon. On six, the lowest price on the card carried the asterisk. Five came from Super.com: at Laimer Hof and Uhland in Munich, Nossek in Vienna, and Casa do Príncipe and Lis Baixa in Lisbon. The sixth was trivago DEALS at Torbräu.
Three of those cards also showed the hotel's own rate. The customized price was lower every time. Torbräu, €175 against €248. Nossek, €224 against €256. Lis Baixa, €93 against €97.
The customized price gets your name. Google puts the lowest price it has next to the hotel's name, as we reported on Friday. A customized price counts. So the number beside your hotel can be one that only a guest on a certain device, or a certain list, ever gets. Another guest looking at the same card may see a different number. So may your front office, checking from its own desk.
Outside the EU, the rule is the same and the asterisk is missing. When we opened cards from Switzerland last week, none of the prices were marked.
The limits. One morning, one desktop browser, logged out of Google. We couldn't see what a phone user or a signed-in user gets: Google's Maps website on a phone sends you to the app. The conditions differ from offer to offer. Torbräu's customized price was non-refundable and the hotel's was not. And we can't tell from outside how each partner sets its price, or for whom.
On Monday. Open your hotel's card on Google Maps on a desktop and on your phone, once logged out and once signed in. Write down the prices, which carry the asterisk, and who sells them. Then ask your channel manager and each OTA account manager which of their partners sells customized rates for your rooms, to whom, and on what conditions.
Read also: Google stopped filling in hotel rates on September 30. Here is what your card looks like now.
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