Google bringing price comparison to vacation rental searches

As it does for flights and hotels, Google is now introducing price comparisons to its travel searches for vacation and short-term rentals.

Users who search Google and click through to a specific property will now be able to compare costs from multiple travel sites on which the property is listed and then click through to make the booking.

Properties that show up in the search results are those listed only with online travel agencies, metasearch sites or connectivity providers that are integrated with Google so they can share the pricing and booking links.

One conspicuous absence appears to be Airbnb. While Google won’t identify all its partners, the dominant OTA for short-term rentals hasn’t made its inventory available to Google in the past. You won’t find Vrbo as a booking option either since Expedia Group pulled its properties from Google in 2021.

Even without those companies, Google touted the convenience of its new feature. “Our hope is that price comparison will help travelers save money, book with confidence and make travel planning just a little bit easier,” the company said in a statement.

In full agreement was David Weiss, the CEO at Whimstay, a vacation rental platform aimed at last-minute travelers.

“With this new Google feature, more consumers will feel more comfortable knowing they’re getting good deals on vacation rentals, which we expect will accelerate growth for the industry and our little business as well,” Weiss said.

Any improvement to Google’s display of short-term rentals figures to raise visibility and drive more direct bookings for the properties that appear there.

Since Whimstay integrated with Google just over a year ago, Weiss said site visits, users and bookings are 10 times greater while conversions have tripled.

“All with zero spent on paid media,” he said. “This exemplifies the magnitude of the impact our Google partnership has had on our business over the past year.”

Google’s cost-comparison search results can also help enhance a property listing’s credibility, said Philip Kennard, founder of Futurestay, a vacation rental technology company.

“The biggest challenge that small hosts and ‘rentalpreneurs’ face on the demand side is earning the trust and credibility of travelers,” he said. While listing through an OTA can help by requiring hosts to meet basic standards, Google’s new tool “will do far more than show consumers the best-priced booking channel – it will help hosts benefit from the trust and credibility they've earned on their OTAs listings by directly comparing them to their own direct booking website.”

Google’s rollout of the cost-comparison feature encompassed only a “percentage of traffic,” as all its launches do, a company spokesperson said. The update will be available by November everywhere but in European Union countries. Google plans to launch the feature there in early 2024.

A company spokesman called the search results a free, organic link, with no advertising fee for the property or commission paid to Google.

With this new Google feature, more consumers will feel more comfortable knowing they’re getting good deals on vacation rentals, which we expect will accelerate growth for the industry and our little business as well.

David Weiss – Whimstay

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Google began listing vacation rentals on its search platform in 2019, with listings from partners that included RedAwning and Tripadvisor, among others — but not Airbnb.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky hasn’t been shy in stating his preference for direct traffic to the company’s website.

“Airbnb kind of stands in a class of its own,” Chesky said during a February call with analysts following the company’s first quarter earnings release. “We’re a noun and a verb used all over the world. … Ultimately, 90% of our traffic comes direct. That’s because we have something that’s unique.”

Given its position in the market, Airbnb is unlikely to be hurt by Google’s new feature, said Phocuswright senior vice president for research and product strategy Charuta Fadnis.

“Airbnb has such high brand recognition, many [short-term rental] bookers start their search on the Airbnb site,” she said. “It’s unlikely that this is going to force Airbnb to participate, and as long as hosts are getting bookings through Airbnb, they’re not likely to shift to other platforms.”

But Google’s new feature may help to level the playing field.

While the new feature’s benefits may be lost on individual property owners who list only on Airbnb, Vrbo or other sites that don’t partner with Google, property management companies and savvy hosts are likely to be more diversified, said Carla Chicharro head of marketing at Lodgify, a vacation rental software company.

“Individual hosts are professionalizing themselves. They’re not just on Airbnb anymore,” she said. “They’re not just on social media trying to get bookings. They’re investing in getting their own websites, getting their brand out there and then, of course, connecting with different channels.”

*PhocusWire editor in chief Mitra Sorrells contributed to this report.