Google Vacation Rentals: publish your rentals, boost your bookings 🎯

Table of contents:

What is Google Vacation Rentals?

What are the requirements to connect to Google vacation rental?

What is the cost to be published on Google?

How to connect my rentals from Smily to Google?

What is sync between Smily and Google vacation rental?

How is the flow for travellers?

How to check the status of your listings

How to monitor your performance

Getting Started

FAQ

What is Google Vacation Rentals?

Google Vacation Rentals (GVR) is a meta-search engine specifically for short-term rental properties. When users search for accommodation in a particular city or region, Google displays a map with all available short-term rental options in the area.

Now, you can list your Smily’ website directly on Google Vacation Rentals, enjoying all the benefits of enhanced visibility and direct bookings.

What are the requirements to connect to Google vacation rental?

Before setting up the connection with Google Vacation rentals, you should be aware of some requirements imposed by Google and Smily in order to use this integration;

• A direct booking site created with Smily is mandatory ! 👨‍⚖️

-You need a direct website build up via and with Smily to publish your listing to Google

-Your website must have a logo image and a matching favicon. → Learn how to xx

-The logo should be square, and the file format should be PNG

-The logo should not have more than three letters

-Logo Minimum size 72 x 72 pixels

-The Logo should be transparent or have a non-white background 

- Your website must be published.

• Each rental must 🎯:

-have a Name and description

-have at least 1 bed.

-The rental type must be one of the following: Boat, Bungalow, Chalet, Farm House, Mobile House, Apartment, House, Room, Student Housing, or Villa. This is set in the Overview of your rental > Base

• Entire properties only; no private rooms, no hotels, no grouped properties

• A full address

• A summary of the property

• At least one amenity

• Not be registered as a hotel/vacation home rental in Google.

• Photo requirement: 

 ℹ️ N.B: the maximum length of stay on Google is 30 days, so if your minimum stay is greater than 30 days, those dates will appear as unavailable on Google.

What is the cost to be published on Google?

Smily will charge an additional 1.9% commission (VAT excluded) on Google bookings. This commission should be charged on monthly basis on top of the commission defined in your pricing plan.

→ today, we are using your website’ markup; It is not possible yet to set a custom one for Google;

Google does not take any commission to be published on their search engine.
 

How to connect my rentals from Smily to Google?

1.  Go to Smily PMS
2.  Go to Apps

3.  Go to Visit the app Center > https://www.bookingsync.com/en/app-center

    

   

4. Search for Google VR app
5. Click on Connect, then follow the steps

6. Start connecting your listing to Google

    

   1/Select an icon + associate brand (website) for your listing

   Google needs to approve your brand name and logo, which may take up to 2 weeks

   

   

   
   2/Listings may take a few days to be displayed on Google

   3/Check regularly any error or issue we display that are coming from Google and may prevent the listing to go live!

7. Once live, you will see the status as Connected and you will the public URL within our Interface

    

8. Make sure you add Google to your auto-payments, messaging, and tasks.

Note:

• Listing content, such as photos, can take up to 2 weeks to update on Google
• Google does not respect the order of the photos set in Smily
• Pricing and availability are synced with Google immediately
  
   

What is sync between Smily and Google vacation rental?

• We do sync everything that is supported on Smily’ direct website;

Listing type

How is the flow for travellers?

Below are some steps representing the search flow on Google, which gives an idea about the real interaction from the guest standpoint:

1/ Guest makes a search on google about vacation rental

2/ Guest can land on google vacation rental website such as Google travel
 

3/ Guest will select your listing and click on View details
 

4/ Guest can see all information about your listing and check the availability if needed

 

4/ They click on Visit site and land on your Smily direct website

5/  And they just follow the booking flow!


 

How to check the status of your listings

• Connected
• Pending status
• Not Connected

How to monitor your performance

Within our Google app, you can for now track the following 2 metrics;

• Impressions =
• Click through rate =

Getting Started

• Creating a direct booking website if not done yet:

- If you’re new to Smily, you must subscribe and get a dedicated website built with Smily to be able to use Google VR (vacation rental)

-Get all the info there: https://manual.bookingsync.com/hc/en-us/categories/360000707373-Your-website

• Prepare your listings:

-Ensure your listing is ready by checking your meet the requirements with the amenities, property configuration, pricing, availability, and professional photos are accurate and up-to-date.

-Connect a payment processor to accept direct bookings.

• Install Google app and start the connection!

-Expand your business across Google search engine and reach a new audience

• Enjoy the new bookings 😃
 

FAQ

• How long does it take for my listings to appear on Google Vacation Rentals?

The time it takes for your listings to appear on Google Vacation Rentals can vary. It typically takes from few days up to few weeks for your listings to be reviewed and approved. However, it’s important to ensure that you have met all the requirements and guidelines set by Google to avoid any delays.

• Where and How can I change my markup for Google?

Today, we are taking and using your markup from your Website. In future, we might allow you to have a dedicated markup for Google but it’s not possible yet.

• Are there any fees or commissions associated with listing on Google Vacation Rentals?

No, today Google Vacation Rentals does not charge any fees or commissions for listing your vacation rentals. However, it’s essential to review their terms and conditions regularly, as they may introduce changes in the future.

However, Smily is charging a 1.9% (before VAT) for as Premium Channel Fees applied on the Final Price.

• How images are ordered?

The image order is auto-generated and cannot be changed. Google ranks and displays images within your property listing and could take into consideration factors, such as user query terms. For example, when a user searches for "vacation rentals with a pool," pool-related images might display at a higher level.

• Does google support room sharing?

No, Room-sharing is not supported in Google Vacation Rentals. We only support full properties.

• Data - how to track and check all users coming from google on your website?

UTM tracking on each url added automatically with following format ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=vacation_rentals

• What website is used and how to change it?

You can select the website to use when connecting your listing to Google via our dedicated app!

Only Smily website are currently compatible

• How to set and change the logo that is used?

You set it right when you connect your listing to Google and you can update it from each rental setting;

Here’s a cleaned-up, dotted version of your text for clarity and consistency:

Your website must be published.