The referral experience refers to the user’s experience after viewing a price on a Google site and then clicking through to a partner’s landing page, and, eventually, the booking page. Google requires that you maintain a consistent and discernible presentation of the room/rate the user selected on Google’s site, and a reasonable booking flow in order to ensure a positive user referral experience.
We evaluate the referral experience on the following criteria for sites where a booking takes place. Failure to comply with any of the following may cause a price to be marked as inaccurate.
- Prices must be accurate and bookable online: The total price users view on a partner’s site must match what they viewed on Google for their selected itinerary and be a complete representation of the price. Users must be able to complete the booking at that price and the transaction must result in confirmed booking at the hotel within 24 hours.
- The room and rate the user clicked on from Google must be displayed prominently to the user on your landing page. Review the “Prominent display of selected room and rate” section below for details and examples.
- A user must land on a page where it’s straightforward to navigate to book the selected room and rate. Refer to our “Landing and booking flow policy” for more detail.
- The final and total booking rate must be displayed before any user information is requested.
- Information displayed from landing on your site through booking must be consistent, clear, and comprehensive. Review the “Information policy for the landing and booking pages” section for details on what is required through the flow.
- Pages must load in a reasonable time and appear fully functional. A page may be considered non-functional if content (such as images and descriptions), prices, or links fail to load. A page is also considered non-functional if a user is unable to interact with the page for more than 10 seconds.
Typically the rate users view on Google must be the lowest rate you offer on your site for that hotel, date pair, occupancy, and point of sale. This will help you garner the most user interest and best represent your site on Google. Though we consider it beneficial to users and partners if the rate on Google is the lowest available, you may send another valid rate in the rare instances you are unable to send the lowest rate.
We realize the experience for meta-search partners is somewhat different than for partners where the booking occurs on the partner’s site. Review the section below to understand the expected experience for Metasearch partners.
The expected referral experience for Meta partners
Some partners may surface prices from other booking providers (for example, Metasearch type functionality). Those partners are still responsible for maintaining accurate prices and a clear path to booking the rate found on Google. For those partners who aggregate rates from providers and send users off-site to book (for example, meta-search partner), the following criteria must be met to avoid being penalized.
- Prices must be accurate and bookable online: The total price the user views on your site must match what they viewed on Google for their selected itinerary, be a complete representation of the price, and the user must be able to complete the booking at that price on your site or a partner’s site.
- The room and rate the user clicked on from Google must be displayed prominently to the user when they land on your page. Even if prices are loaded after a user lands on your site, the option they clicked on Google must remain clearly in view (for example, not hidden behind a “View More” tab). Check the “Prominent display of selected room and rate” section below for details and examples.
- A user should land on a page where it’s straightforward to navigate to book the selected room and rate. If the booking happens on your site, you must follow the “Landing and booking flow policy”. If the booking happens on a partner site, the policy must be followed through booking on their site.
- The final and total booking rate must be displayed before any user information is requested.
- Information displayed from landing on your site through booking should be consistent, clear, and comprehensive. Review the “Information policy for the landing and booking pages” section for details on what is required through the flow.
Prominent display of selected room and rate
The room and rate the user clicked on Google should be easy to identify when the user lands on your site. As such, it must be prominently displayed on the landing page. We define “prominent” differently depending on the type of page the user lands on:
- For landing pages that are a room selection or booking page, the room and rate must be visible and easy for a user to locate. Options that require excessive scrolling to view aren't considered easy to locate.
- For landing pages that require a user to select a hotel or provider, the rate the user selected from Google’s site must be distinguished in placement and/or treatment from other rates to make it clear and obvious to a user.
We realize partner sites are designed differently, so to help, below are some examples of what is likely to be considered prominent placement:
- A rate that is larger than others and in the highest position on the page
- A primary selection button for a rate that is in the highest position on the page
- A rate that is near the top of the page and has a visual indication (for example, has highlight or text) that identifies it as the preferred option
- A rate that is pinned to the right or left side of a page, distinct from other rates on the page
If you have questions about whether the “prominent” display on your site passes our criteria, feel free to reach out to your Google rep. Below are some visual examples to guide you.
Examples
Price shown on Google is most prominent (Pass)
Google periodically checks landing pages for compliance with this policy. A check may result in a fail if the price is among multiple prices with no clear differentiator, requires scrolling to find, requires an additional click to view, and so on.
Landing to booking flow policy
Your landing page must feature the same room type, check-in date, check-out date, and occupancy the user selected on Google. The landing page is encouraged to be the booking page. In the cases where it isn’t, the landing page must:
- Allow the user to proceed to booking a hotel without unnecessary clicks that don’t take the user closer to booking, or re-entering the selected hotel or dates at any point in the flow.
- Clearly show the name of the hotel.
- Indicate the next step for the user to take to proceed to booking.
When the user clicks through to the booking page (or if the landing page is also the booking page), the page must:
- Comply with our Taxes and Fees Policy.
- Show the hotel name, dates, and occupancy for the stay.
- The rate from the referring click (for example, rate user clicked from landing page, or rate user selected on Google) must be easily findable by a user or correspond to the rate associated with the primary booking button (if there is a primary booking button).
Unavailability of the rate type clicked by the user through the booking flow is considered an accuracy violation.
Information policy for the landing and booking pages
Rates that are offered on your landing page must be identical in inclusions and conditions (for example, refundability, wi-fi, points, and so on) to rates that are offered to users who begin a search from your booking site directly.
- Show the name of the hotel.
- Feature the same room type, check-in date, check-out date, occupancy count, language, and base rate that the user selected on Google.
- Not include optional payments, fees, and services in the total price by default.
- Follow our Refundable rates policy if the rate is refundable.
The booking page must:
- Show the name of the hotel.
- Feature the same room type, check-in date, check-out date, occupancy count, language, and base rate that the user selected on Google.
- Include all mandatory taxes fees in addition to the appropriate base rate.
- Not include optional payments, fees, and services in the total price by default.
- Follow our Refundable rates policy if the rate is refundable.
What is the policy on interstitial pages appearing before the landing page?
Google considers the landing page to be where users actually end up after passing through any redirects resulting from a click on a referring link on a Google site. This stable page will be at the end of any redirects and won't change without manual user interaction.
Interstitial pages are web pages that appear before the landing page and automatically redirect to the landing page after some time. Displaying interstitial pages between Google sites and your landing pages is discouraged. However, if you must show an interstitial, the interstitial must be branded as the partner brand that matches the referral link on Google.
What happens if I violate this policy?
Google uses a combination of automated and human evaluation to ensure compliance with our policies. Violations of our referral experience policy will either result in a price being considered as inaccurate or the partner being considered more systematically non-compliant. Enforcement may either apply at the price, property, or account level. Review the Price Accuracy Policy page for more detail on actions Google may take in response to low price accuracy.
Ask Google to reconsider a suspension decision
If you disagree with a suspension decision and want us to reconsider our position, you may submit an appeal within six months from the date of suspension. An appeal form has been provided within the suspension notification email. Please note that after the end of this six-month period, you will no longer be allowed to ask us to reconsider our decision.
Only one appeal can be submitted per suspension decision. Please refrain from the repeated submission of unfounded appeals. Before submitting an appeal please ensure you understand Google policies. At the time of submitting an appeal be sure to include clear and convincing evidence as to why Google should reconsider our decision. Failure to do so might prevent you from being allowed to submit an appeal in the future.
Once an appeal is submitted, your request will be promptly reviewed and Google will get back to you with a decision. If your appeal is unsuccessful, you will be required to resolve any policy violations to be in compliance with Google's policies, in order for the suspension to be lifted.
For EU users covered by the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA)
Review the European Union Digital Service Act resolution options for additional appeal options.