Google Metasearch (aka Google Hotel Ads) is one of the most important channels for hotels looking to drive direct bookings. But the recent rise in AI-powered search results - and resulting reduction in click-through rates - has raised many questions about how this critical channel will work in an AI-powered world.
Now we’re seeing the first part of the answer: Google has started to integrate hotel ads into the results delivered by its Gemini AI, potentially making metasearch an even more vital marketing channel.
At the time of writing we’ve only seen this new output in information-led travel searches originating from the US, but it’s common for Google to test new functions in a limited area before rolling out more widely.
Let’s start with “itinerary for a week in new york”. In the ‘traditional’ Google search interface you may now see an AI Overview which suggests a detailed, day-by-day itinerary.
Here’s the current US experience:
The new “Where to stay” section provides a dropdown showing listings which link out to Google Hotel Ads, and a map-based overview of the same listings.
Compare that to what the UK AI Overviews experience looks like:
In our testing, metasearch ads mostly show up in research-focused queries. For example, a query asking for a “New York Itinerary”, “Planning a trip to New York”, or “NYC weekend trip” triggers AI Overviews with the “where to stay” dropdown (like the example above).
More hotel-specific queries, like “where to stay in New York”, appear to still surface Google’s Travel Promotion Ads (ads that Google offers to hotels looking to target guests earlier in their journey, before they search for specific hotels).
And more activity-focused queries like “what to do in New York” seem to stick to the traditional AI overview layout offering information–without the direct advertisements.
Switch to AI Mode - Google’s new ChatGPT-style conversational interface (also not yet available everywhere) - and things change again.
For the search “itinerary for a week in new york” that we used above, US searchers get a detailed itinerary suggestion without any metasearch links.
But search for “great hotels for families in London” in AI Mode and Metasearch links are now included within the results (even though this search produces no AI content in a ‘traditional’ search).
So far, whether a hotel is on Google’s Travel Promotion Ads doesn’t appear to change whether that hotel’s metasearch listing shows up in Google’s AI overviews. We’ve seen both hotels who invest in TPAs and those who don’t appear in this new feature.
There’s a lot of controversy around the rollout of AI Overviews–in fact, EU web publishers are currently pursuing an antitrust complaint against Google that stems from the impact that fewer guests clicking through to websites could have on their business.
On the other hand, this is a way for hotels’ direct websites to be shown to customers making higher-funnel search queries. By investing in metasearch, which has historically been one of the most effective ways for hotels to regain bookings from OTAs at the bottom of the funnel, hotels may now have the added benefit of being seen by guests in the inspiration phase of their journey.
If the new AI modes help Google to secure their position as the de facto place to search, and Hotel Ads are shown for a wider range of terms, metasearch may become more important than ever.
As this is so new, it’s difficult to say exactly how guests can optimize their presence in this channel. But we can say for sure that being live on both free and paid metasearch should be a priority for hotels looking to be featured. So making sure that you are investing in your metasearch strategy and optimizing it however you can is one of the best and simplest ways to keep up with this change.
Based on Google’s previous recommendations for other tools including Travel Promotion Ads, we’d also ensure that your Google My Business profile is up to date and incorporates powerful visuals and as much information as possible.
Beyond that, In order to futureproof your site and show up for any AI optimizations in the future, hotels need to continue to optimize for Generative Engine Optimization in general. We covered how to do just that in our “SEO to GEO” webinar back in June. You can watch the whole recording here, but here are a few specific recommendations:
Whatever’s coming next in this space, it’s important for hotels to continue to invest in their traditional channels while thinking about how to adapt to an AI-assisted booking journey.
Will we see more types of paid media appearing, or see the opportunity for hotels to actively invest their spend specifically in appearing in these queries? No-one knows yet, but we’ll be keeping an eye on what Google rolls out and how these changes expand outside of the US.
If you need more advice on how to make sure that your metasearch channel is ready for these changes, and how you can optimize your visibility on AI Search overviews, our direct booking experts are here to help.