Google, Maps and your booking site

Guests who search for "cabin in Malung" mostly end up in two places: the normal Google results and Google Maps. Which of the two you can use depends on what you rent out.

A private holiday home: Google Vacation Rentals

A holiday home, cabin, apartment or room that you rent out to guests cannot have a Google Business Profile. Google's own rule: a profile is for a business where customers can walk in during opening hours. In Google's guidelines, "rental or for-sale properties such as vacation homes" are listed as not eligible, and profiles for a holiday home get removed sooner or later.

What does work for a holiday home is Google Vacation Rentals: your place appears in Google Search and Maps with prices and availability, and the Book button goes to your own booking site. In hejGuide this is a channel: Listing → Website → card Google. Connect once; Google shows the listing within one to four weeks.

Next to that, your booking site itself is set up for Google: one page per accommodation, prices, location, photos and structured data behind the scenes. The card Findability on the Website tab shows how the page appears in Google and in chat previews. Everything there is filled in automatically; only change the title, the description or the photo if you want another text or image.

A staffed place: Business Profile on Maps

Do you run a B&B, guesthouse, campsite or small hotel where guests can check in with you? Then a free Google Business Profile is worth it: your name, photos, opening hours, reviews and a Website button on the map.

1. Go to business.google.com and choose Manage now.
2. Enter the name guests know, for example the name of the campsite.
3. Pick the category that fits: Bed & breakfast, Campground, Guest house, Hotel.
4. Enter the address exactly as it is in hejGuide (Listing → Details). Same spelling, same postcode.
5. Website: use the address of your booking site (Listing → Website → View website, copy the address bar). Add ?utm_source=google_maps at the end so you can see in your statistics how many guests arrive from Maps.
6. Verify the profile. Google usually asks for a short video walk-through, sometimes a postcard with a code. This can take a few days.

After verification: upload the same photos as on your booking site, ask guests for a Google review after their stay, set the opening hours to Open 24 hours rather than "Closed", and keep name, address and phone number identical on the profile, your booking site and in hejGuide.

Managing several homes for owners?

A rental agency with an office where owners and guests can come by can list the office as a Business Profile (category Vacation rental agency), with the brand site as website. The individual homes still stay out of Maps; they go through Google Vacation Rentals.