April 16, 2020– One important way to help Hotel Search users during the COVID-19 crisis is to present cancellation policies for hotel bookings to users whenever possible. Google’s Hotel Search UI is being updated to include a filter for hotels where partners are offering rates flagged as “cancellable” so users can make more informed booking decisions given the current uncertain circumstances. When the filter is applied, only the advertisers with refundable rates will enter Hotel Ads auction.
Recommended steps for the rates to be eligible for “cancellable” classification:
- Provide refundability data via existing price feeds (highly recommended)
- Setup a global refundable rates policy (recommended only for account or brand-level policy updates)
- Update your callout messages to include information regarding refundability (least recommended) (read more about the callouts here)
More information can be found here.
