Google’s PMax gets smarter for hotels, working alongside Hotel Ads

How Google’s upgraded PMax adds value across the funnel while Hotel Ads remain the core conversion engine

Key takeaways

• PMax is Google’s most automated campaign format, but it is not hotel-specific and does not replace Google Hotel Ads.
• Hotels need both tools: PMax for full-funnel reach and storytelling, Hotel Ads for real-time price visibility and driving direct bookings.
• PMax requires extensive creative assets, from images and videos to logos and audience signals, to perform well.
• Automation introduces risks, especially around brand cannibalization, inflated attribution, and diluted targeting.
• Google is slowly improving transparency, adding search term reporting, asset-level insights, and expanded negative keywords.
• Hoteliers should treat PMax as a complementary layer, not a new default — and monitor it as carefully as any revenue channel.

Google thinks ads should run themselves

If you’ve spent any time with digital marketers lately, you’ve probably heard the phrase “Performance Max” tossed around like it’s the second coming of direct bookings. Google certainly hopes you believe that. PMax is the company’s most automated campaign type ever — a single AI-powered switch that pushes your hotel into Search, Display, YouTube, Discovery, Gmail, and Maps without asking you to pick a keyword.

It’s Google’s attempt to replace your knobs and dials with a shiny “trust us” button. And to be fair, the button works — sometimes beautifully. But for hotels, automation is never neutral. It changes who you reach, how much you pay, and how much control you lose along the way.

So what exactly is PMax — and why does Google want hotels using it?

PMax is Google’s answer to a world where advertisers have too many channels and not enough time. Instead of building separate campaigns for search, display, or video, you hand Google a bag of creative assets — headlines, descriptions, photos, videos, logos — plus some audience hints and conversion goals.

Google uses that to decide:

• which guests to target
• what placements to use
• how much to bid
• and where across the Google empire your ads should appear

If Search is a scalpel, PMax is a Roomba with delusions of grandeur: it wanders everywhere, sweeping up demand you didn’t even know was on the floor.

For hotels, that means you can reach:

• The dreamers watching travel vlogs on YouTube
• The planners comparing options in Search
• The bookers checking Maps for hotels nearby

All from a single campaign.

But here’s the twist: automation has side effects

Letting Google run your campaign sounds peaceful — until you realize the algorithm has started rearranging your furniture.

Your “audience signals” are just… suggestions

PMax doesn’t follow your targeting instructions; it uses them as inspiration. Loyalty members, past guests, competitor audiences — these are signals, not filters. If Google sees performance somewhere unexpected, it will chase it, even if those users would never actually book your hotel.

Brand cannibalization is practically a feature

PMax loves branded search terms because they’re cheap, high-intent, and deliver conversions. But hotels already own that demand. When PMax swoops in, you end up paying more for guests who were already looking for you. And because PMax is aggressive with attribution, it will happily claim credit for nearly everything — even bookings your brand campaign already captured.

You lose visibility — and control

Traditional paid search gives you:

• full keyword lists
• negative keywords
• transparent bid strategies
• granular reporting

PMax gives you:

• vibes
• blended averages
• and a polite suggestion to trust the machine

It’s not wrong — but it’s not neutral either.

The good news: Google is finally opening the black box

After a wave of industry pressure, Google added several features that actually help hoteliers:

• Search terms reporting — giving you visibility into queries triggering your ads.
• Expanded negative keywords — up to 10,000 entries, which is a major step forward.
• Asset-level performance — showing how each image, headline, or video performs across Google’s surfaces.
• Impression share metrics — borrowed from traditional search campaigns.

These aren’t perfect, but they’re meaningful. PMax is still a black box — it’s just a black box with a window now.

Why PMax doesn’t (and can’t) replace Google Hotel Ads

Here’s the part that matters most for hoteliers: Google Hotel Ads is still a separate, completely different product, and it remains the beating heart of direct booking strategy.

Hotel Ads does what PMax never will:

• show live prices
• show availability and room types
• appear in the hotel knowledge panel
• deliver parity-sensitive metasearch clicks
• compete directly with OTAs
• use commission or CPC bidding
• integrate with CRS feeds and partners like reconline

Hotel Ads is where guests go when they’re on the cusp of booking. It’s a price-driven auction, not a branding megaphone.

PMax can get people thinking about your hotel. Hotel Ads gets them booked.

They are different tools for different moments. One doesn’t replace the other.

How smart hotel marketers use both — without wasting budget

Hotels that get this right treat PMax and Hotel Ads like two sides of the same funnel.

PMax is for:

• awareness
• consideration
• retargeting
• YouTube and Display reach
• incremental demand

Hotel Ads is for:

• direct booking capture
• beating OTA bids
• metasearch visibility
• rate and parity transparency
• converting high-intent traffic

Use PMax to warm up the market. Use Hotel Ads to convert it.

So should hotels invest in PMax? Yes — but with boundaries

If you’re a hotel considering PMax, here’s the rulebook:

1. Protect your brand terms like your ADR depends on it — because it does.

Set negative keywords, watch attribution models, and ensure you’re not paying for demand you already own.

2. Feed the machine properly.

High-quality photos, on-brand videos, accurate headlines — PMax performs only as well as the assets you give it.

3. Don’t let PMax distract you from Hotel Ads.

Metasearch is still the most direct path from intent to booking. PMax is the prelude, not the finale.

The bottom line

Google wants advertisers to trust automation, and for some industries, that might be fine. But hospitality is not “some industry.” Hotels live and die by intent, rate parity, brand protection, and channel cost.

PMax is an impressive engine — but it’s not the steering wheel. For hotels, the smart play in 2026 is simple: Use PMax to spark demand. Use Hotel Ads to catch it. And never confuse automation with strategy.