Google Vacation Rental listings appear alongside organic search results on Google. Travelers can discover listings by browsing relevant keywords in Google Search, exploring destinations in Google Maps, or filtering for vacation rentals in Google Travel’s dedicated lodging search.
Supercontrol is able to offer you a connection to Google Vacation Rentals. Before requesting the connection, you must ensure your listings meet the minimum content requirements outlined below. These must be in place for them to go live on Google.
STEP 1: To help speed up the onboarding process to Google, please review the information below regarding Google’s minimum content requirements and recommendations. SuperControl already validates most of these details, especially for other integrations, so it’s likely you already meet many of them. However, please pay close attention to point 8, as this requirement is unique to Google and is non-negotiable.
Minimum content validation:
(Google API requirements that will fail validation on their side and wont allow the property to be onboarded without)
1. Property must have at least five photos.
(Max width is 4000 px, Max height is 4000 px, Max size is 10 mb, Accepted formats are JPG, JPEG, PNG, WEBP. No watermarks or branding.)
- Google recommends 8 as the minimum with 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 common area included
- Google strongly recommends 20 or more 'for competitive advantage'
2. Property must have a title/name
3. Property must have a latitude
4. Property must have a longitude
5. Latitude and longitude combination must be a real, logical place
6. Property must not be a hotel
7. Property must have an occupancy allowed
8. Property must have a property listing page on a website that Google can redirect guests to for each property.
This is taken by Google from within SuperControl under Properties> Edit> Select property> Go> Choose “Show on websites” from the sub menu or scroll down to the bottom of the property settings. (Example screenshot attached) and enter your individual property website URL, then save.
Google also mark down listings for:
1. Lack of property description
2. Property description and property title being the same e.g Name: Beautiful Lake View cottage sleeps 6 Description: Beautiful Lake view Cottage....
Email [email protected] or submit a support ticket via your SuperControl account to request your listings be connected to Google. To help us process your request faster, please confirm in your message that you’ve checked your properties meet Google’s minimum requirements.
Please only request connection when the above minimum content guidelines have been met.
What to expect after you have requested a connection
Once you’ve submitted your request and confirmed that your listings meet Google’s minimum content requirements, our Support team will connect your properties to Google in the background via API. Google’s onboarding time currently varies between 24 hours and two weeks, with no specific reason for the difference in processing times.
A frequently asked question we receive from property owners and agencies listing on Google is, "why cant I find my listings?".
Google Vacation Rentals works a little differently from other booking platforms such as Airbnb or Booking.com. It’s designed to give travellers a broad range of accommodation options when they’re searching for a place to stay, not just holiday rentals.
Here’s how it works:
When a guest searches a destination on Google, their results include a mix of options such as, places to stay, places to eat, and travel choices.
Currently, the “places to stay” results are more heavily populated by hotels, as this feature originated from Google Hotels. However, as Google expands its focus on vacation rentals, the balance between hotel and rental listings is expected to even out over time.
For now, the best way for guests to find your properties is through searches such as:
“Holiday rentals in…”
“Vacation rentals in…”
“Short-term lets in…”
“Self-catering accommodation in…”
These types of searches will generate results similar to the example below
The guest can then click into a particular listing or view all properties. If it's a holiday rental then the landing page finds them on "Google Vacation Rentals".
If they select dates and see a price they click Visit site.
"Official site" should always be the top result, this is the listing coming directly from SuperControl through Google. Its ideally also the most competitive price because other sites listed underneath tend to be affiliates or third parties which commonly include uplifts, to cover listing fee's.
Once the guest clicks 'Visit site', they are redirected straight to the SuperControl booking cart on your website, so they can simply continue to book.
This is also why Google requires property owners or managers connected through SuperControl to link property website URL's to their properties under Properties>Edit>Show on websites in your SuperControl account. If the guest doesn't choose dates and doesn't see a price, they can still be linked through to your direct property listing page to also book from there.
If your properties are connected to other channels through SuperControl, such as Booking.com or Vrbo, you may notice these affiliates appearing in your Google Vacation Rentals search results. This happens because Google aggregates all available data linked to a single property listing.
In some cases, you might also see sites you haven’t personally signed up for, for example, “Bluepillow.” These are third-party affiliates connected to your main channels (Bluepillow, for instance, is an affiliate of Booking.com).
If you’d like one of these listings removed, you can request this directly through the main channel, in this example, by contacting Booking.com.
As mentioned above, the Google Vacation Rentals booking process directs guests straight to the booking page on your own website. This means there’s no need, or functionality, to adjust or increase your prices specifically for Google Vacation Rentals listings.
Google Vacation Rentals (GVR) uses AI and automation to display and manage property data, but the control over customisation is limited for property owners/managers. Here’s how it works:
Automated Data Synchronisation
- Google does not allow direct manual edits by property owners
- Instead, it automatically pulls data from approved partner platforms or property management software (in this case, SuperControl)
- AI ensures that listings stay updated in real time with pricing, availability, and descriptions
Google Vacation Rentals has Limited customisation compared to Google Business Profile (GBP) which means that owners cannot directly log into Google to edit listings, you must update details via SuperControl. Changes sync automatically to Google Vacation Rentals, there is no option to manually change ranking, layout, or photos in Google’s interface.
What Owners CAN Control (Through SuperControl):
✔ Property Description & Photos
✔ Pricing & Availability
However, Google’s AI decides how the listing is displayed based on user preferences and search trends.
Google Hotels and Google Vacation Rentals (Google VR) are both Google-powered travel search platforms, but they serve different types of accommodations.
Google Hotels is the original booking platform on Google that previously allowed bookings for both hotels and vacation rentals all on the same platform. Google have since evolved and split the two separately, with separate API's.
Listing Display on Google
- Google Hotels
- Listings appear in a dedicated "Hotels" search and on Google Maps.
- Google VR
- Listings appear in a dedicated "Vacation Rentals" tab within Google Hotels and on Google Maps.
As SuperControl is a Property Management System for holiday rentals, Google only allow us to connect with them via the Vacation Rentals API. Property owners or managers cannot connect via the Hotels platform.
Google differentiate a Hotel and a Vacation rental by if the answer is Yes to the below questions:
- Have a front desk or on-site management?
- Accept overnight guests?
- Have their property and business address listed publicly?
Click Here to see their documentation on this for more context.
A Google Business Listing (officially called Google Business Profile) is a free online listing that helps businesses appear in Google Search and Google Maps when people search for relevant products or services. It acts as a digital storefront, providing key business details to potential customers. While Google Business Profile (GBP) and Google Vacation Rentals (GVR) both help businesses appear in Google Search, they serve different purposes.
Google Vacation Rental listings allow direct bookings, Google Business Profile only provides consumers with the contact information to contact the business.
In the context of a property owner or manager, Google business listing can be used in the case where you want to set up the main business advert, or the conglomerate of your company.