Brand association allows you to group your vacation rental properties together. You can associate brand-specific icons (or logos) to the set of properties in a group. Brand association does not happen automatically; you will need to sync with your Technical Account Manager to enable it for your account.
How to set up brand associations
There are 3 steps to set up your vacation rental brand associations.
Step 1: Update your inventory to indicate brands for each listing
Within the
<listing> element of your hotel list file, use the <relation_type> and <parent_id> tags to indicate which brand ID each listing in your feed will be associated with.- The value for
relation_typeshould always bemember_of_chain. - The value for
parent_idshould be the intended brand ID.
<listing>
<id>1234</id>
<relation>
<relation_type>member_of_chain</relation_type>
<parent_id>my-brand-id-1</parent_id>
</relation>
...
</listing>
<id>1234</id>
<relation>
<relation_type>member_of_chain</relation_type>
<parent_id>my-brand-id-1</parent_id>
</relation>
...
</listing>
Tip: To serve your non-branded listings, use a general brand ID. Listings that don’t have a
parent_id assigned will not be served when your account is in the multiple brands mode.Step 2: Configure your landing pages
Configure the landing page for each brand ID with one or more landing pages associated with them. This can be done either through uploading the Landing Page XML, or changing each landing page manually via the “Landing pages” section of Hotel Center. Brand ID in the XML feed and landing page configuration should match exactly.
Brand IDs can be allowed or disallowed to serve in the landing page configuration.
- Match status = "yes" - Allowed
- Match status = "never" - Disallowed
<PointOfSale id="pos-of-brand-id-1">
<DisplayNames display_text="My Brand Name" display_language="en"/><!-- visible to users -->
<Match status='yes' brand="my-brand-id-1"/>
...
</PointOfSale>
<DisplayNames display_text="My Brand Name" display_language="en"/><!-- visible to users -->
<Match status='yes' brand="my-brand-id-1"/>
...
</PointOfSale>
Step 3: Submit your brand icons
Brand icon guidelines for vacation rentals:
| File format: PNG |
Icon character limits: No more than three text characters per icon |
Image resolution: 72x72 pixels or larger; square dimensions |
Image Background: Transparent or non-white background |
Send your Technical Account Manager at Google the icon for each landing page. The preferred format is a zip file containing all the icons, where each file name is identical to the corresponding brand ID. However, adding the icons is currently a manual process and we’re flexible on the format. A CSV file containing URLs for each brand’s icon can also be accepted.
If you’re interested in implementing brands for your listings, you can reach out to our technical support team for more information.