Below are some Frequently Asked Questions that we often get from Hoteliers regarding the Google Hotel Price Ads program.
Q: How can my Hotel/s get pricing and inventory listed on Google Hotel Finder, Google+ Local and Google Maps?
A: Woodcrick-Seekda is the only technology provider that offers a straight CPC (cost-per-click) model for listing your hotels real-time pricing and inventory on Google Hotel Price Ads driving Google users to your hotels own website. Google has recently allowed a few select technology providers the ability to push rates and inventory for individual hotels, previously only available through OTA connections. Most of the approved providers are large chain CRS providers or large booking engine providers. Woodcrick-Seekda is platform-agnostic so any hotelier large or small and no matter of current booking engine provider, is able to take advantage of this advanced technology and distribution channel cost savings.
Q: My hotel already has a booking engine, can I still work with Woodcrick-Seekda for only the Google Hotel Price Ads program?
A: Of course. We are a provider of various technologies for hotels but offer a flexible line of products which allows hotels to pick and choose only those products that make sense for them. If you already have a hotel website booking engine that you are happy with, we can provide you the technology to push your rates and inventory to Google, landing those customers who click-through to your site where they could book through your current booking engine.
Q: How does it look when someone clicks to go to my hotels’ site from one of the Google Hotel Price Ads?
A: The seekda technology lands the customer on whatever page of your site that you designate, with a light box overlay that shows the price & room type available that drove that customer to click on your “ad” (the least expensive rate for 2 travelers on the dates selected). Once your customer lands here, they have the choice to review all available room types, rates or packages you have offered via the seekda platform, or turn off the light box to view your site and book. If the customer books via the seekda booking engine platform, we pass that reservation onto you via email with no transaction fees and no commissions to be paid – it is only the cost of the click that you owe for this highly qualified lead. View our “How does it work” section for images of the light box or contact a Woodcrick Representative for a Demo.
Q: What is a “good” conversion rate for search CPC?
A: 2% is considered “a very good” conversion for most industries. Suppliers currently participating in Hotel Price Ads and Google Hotel Finder claim that these targeted travel ads average between 7%-8%booked once users click to the supplier’s website.
Q: Why does Google call Hotel Finder an experiment still?
A: When Google purchased YouTube in 2005 it was named an “experiment” for a period of time. Google is actively changing & updating Hotel Finder with enhancements – we expect the word “experiment” to be removed in the near future.
Q: Do people really click on paid links?
A: Yes! If they didn’t, Google wouldn’t be in business. Google made over $28Billion in 2010 on paid search ads which was 96% of Google’s overall revenue. OTA’s are making money bidding on your hotel name and driving the bookings to their site.
Q: Is there a minimum per month I am required to spend on CPC?
A: There is no monthly minimum spend. There is an annual Software as a Service fee of $500, however, this SaaS fee is waived with a minimum CPC spend of $1,500/yr.
Q: Am I able to control my CPC spend?
A: Yes, seekda’s dashboard allows you to control your monthly budget, here you can also track how much you’ve spent month-to-date, # of impressions, # of clicks and # of bookings in real-time.
Q: How do I get my inventory & rates into seekda’s system?
A: There are 3 ways to “connect” with seekda: 1.) manual updating of inventory/rates by a user; 2.) using a channel management system (i.e. EZYield etc.) to push rates and inventory from your providers platform to seekda ; 3.) Direct connection from your CRS / PMS to seekda. Each of these scenarios can be discussed at length with your Woodcrick Representative.
