How to Get Listed on Google Vacation Rentals
18 Oct 2023 · 2 min
Mark Simpson explains how to get your vacation rental listed on Google Vacation Rentals. Hostfully syncs to 17+ booking sites with a single calendar and inbox, and Boostly listeners get $200 off plus 6 months of premium guidebooks free through October 31st.
Questions this episode answers
October 14 to October 31 (year context: the episode was recorded Oct 18, 2023).
$200 off the PMP subscription (advertised as a special vs. the usual £100 off).
Six months of premium guidebooks for free (normally two months).
Over 17 listing sites.
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This is a freestyle going off the dumb.
Ready for my close up good looking let me tell you get more bookings. Aw that'd be nice giving me tips, tools and advice. Yeah you're gonna get em hun. You're gonna sit back, listen to Mark Simpson. Whoa having a blast. Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee like Bruce Lee cause it's so hard and the tee is loose leaf Making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely. If you want my respect you're better but direct. Here are the words in the podcast. That's what comes next.
Never before have I seen one person's video cause ripples amongst the Facebook groups. My inbox, my DMs and the video that I'm talking about is Mr. Sean Raki dishes YouTube video which is very nicely titled. This site could destroy Airbnb. Now I'm all for a video like this is beautiful and I love to see it. But I needed to record this because there are a lot of people that are getting posting in Facebook groups, coming into our Facebook groups, sending me messages saying about Google Vacation Rentals. So the video starts like this. Your short term rental in 2023. That's not Airbnb really good. I mean Sean is probably one of the best in terms of production video. He knows what he's doing. The video, if you haven't seen it, is over on YouTube. This site could destroy Airbnb. You go and check it out, 12 minutes. But what he talks about in here, just to give you a little summary, let me see if I can cut to it while we go through it. But here we go, Google Vacation Rentals, which is in here. Now there's a lot of things that we need to to cut into this, but as the title says, how to get listed on Google Vacation Rentals. Now, Google Vacation Rentals is nothing new. If anybody has been following this channel for a while, this was a video that I did seven months ago. The difference between Google Vacation Rentals and Google Business Listings, okay, in this office we went through it, we went for it in detail, we shared screens. So Google Business Listing, that for the world of short term rentals, that is disappearing and disappearing quick. If you've got a Google Business Listing account and you've got your short term rental accommodation business on there, and when I say short term rental accommodation, this is basically anywhere that hasn't got a front desk, hasn't got a physical somebody behind the desk to check in, then you will have your listing removed. It is being delisted and it's happening automatically. As far as I'm aware, you don't even get a message. It just happens. So they are removing you from that and they are pushing all short term rental accommodation to Google Vacation Rentals. And again, if you want to know the distinct features between two, go and check out the video. Just type in the difference between Google Vacation Rentals and Google Business Listings Boostly. Type it into search, you'll find the video. This video is to show you exactly how to get listed on Google Vacation Rentals. And it is super clear, it is super obvious and it's super straightforward. And I've been given word from very high up sources that this is going to be how it is going to be. There's not going to be any workaround and to sort of burst a few people's bubbles. I'm afraid that the only way to get listed on Google Vacation Rentals is via your property management software. Or a channel manager, whatever you want to call them, you have to be a Google Vacation Rental integration partner and a connectivity partner. And just to give you a bit of an idea on, you may be thinking, well, I want to become a connectivity partner. To get on this program you need to have at least, let's just say 10,000 listings, okay? It has to be quantity because they don't want to work with everybody, they just want to work with a few that's going to give them the data, that's going to give them the inventory, that's going to give them the listings. Okay? So the easiest way for you to get listed on Google Vacation Rentals, and again I talk about it in here and Sean talks about it here so well, is that there are going to be a lot of people that will start their search or still start their search on Google and they will go to Google Maps, they will go and ask Bard, which is obviously going to be their, the generative AI bot and they are going to be picking their results from Google Vacation Rentals. So if somebody comes in, so if I, for example, in a couple of months time will speak to my device and say, hey bud, I'm going to be going to Orlando. I need you to find me a place that's no more than 20 minute drive from Disneyland Disney World. I've got, you know, I've got to sleep six people. It's got to have a poll, it's got to have X, Y and Z. It will pluck results from Google Vacation Rentals, right? It's not going to pluck it from Airbnb, it's not going to pluck it from vrbo. Why would it? It wants to give it the results that it is going to provide. So to be on there you need to be one of those connectivity patterns, one of those product management softwares. Now if you want to find this support question, just literally type in Google Vacation Rentals Partners, okay? Do not get fooled by this hotel prices. It's not that they are rewording everything. So if you don't see your property management software tool on here, then you cannot get added in. It's as simple as that. Now if you are with one of these, congratulations. There is a very high chance that you've already been listed on there and not been made aware. Most property management software tools right now they are adapting their portfolio, their property, their product to be able to get you on there. Now you may be thinking, fantastic, this is lovely news. I'm going to be getting tons of direct bookings I'm going to be getting tons of people finding me on, on Google. This is great. Or I'm going to go in and I'm going to amend it right now. How do I log in? How do I amend it? Well, this is the bad news. If you've got a Google Business listing, you will know that you can go into it and you can amend the pictures, you could amend the copy, you could post an update, you could put offers in. You could do all the cool things that a Google Business listing allows. Now, with Google Vacation Rentals, you don't get that. You don't get that benefit at all. The information that is in your property management software tool is the information that gets synced to Google Vacation Rentals. Now let me just share my screen for a client that we've been working with this year and I'll give you an idea of, of how it looks. Right, so we're in here now and I'm going to just zoom on in so you can all see it clear as day. If I scroll down here, you'll see it'll say airbnb booking.com verbo Google vacation rentals. Okay, so the information that gets synced through is rates, bookings, availabilities, automated messages, create listings. That literally is it. There's nothing else that you can go in and do. And whatever information that you have on your listing within your property management software tool is the information that is being sent out to Google. You, you know, you don't get to change anything is literally what is on there is what is seen. Now this is a big letdown. And from again, from the top sources that I've been speaking to, from what I am aware that's never going to change because this is the main difference between a Google Business listing and a Google Vacation Rental. They just want the same information to go in and obviously they're not going to be. Well, they want to direct it back to your direct booking website, which is really key to have a direct booking website, which is beautiful for the Diet Booking movement. But for me, what would make this product fantastic and would what made me want to talk about it more and create videos on this would be for you to be able to go in and edit, but you're not going to get the opportunity to do so. And again, the client, I've gone and, you know, I've gone and found the listing and I've seen reports in Facebook groups saying Google have been pulling in some random places, random results, ones that aren't even open anymore, etcetera and it's just, it's just not there right now. So the. For the amount of people that are worrying about Google vacation rentals, for the amount of people that are going, how do I do X, I do do Y? I've had people messaging me saying I'm on Boostly Boostly website. How do I get on Google? This is me recording this video to say, you don't have the power. You can't amend it, you can't dictate it. You literally gotta be on one of these property management software tools that is a partner of Google now. If you don't see your property management software tool on there, then I would be messaging them instantly to say, hey, when's it going to happen? And they will be adding more and they've added a heck of a lot since I was last on this page. I would be paying very close attention to it because at the end of the day, for me, this shows which channel managers, which property management software tools are ahead of the game in terms of product, product development, relationships they've built in the industry. So it's a, it's a telling sign to me if your property management software tool on there yet, obviously keep checking it back. This has been recorded October 2023. This product will be very different in, you know, January 2024 as it will be in June 2024, especially with generative AI becoming more of a thing, you know, voice, search, etc. Etc. So for now, don't worry about it. If you see it on the list, brilliant. You can't affect it, you can't amend it. It's not like an Airbnb list. And that you can change all of the things, there's no algorithms and that you can influence, it literally is feeding in your price, your pictures pretty much it. So with that being said, I would love for you in the comments that you are watching now to let me know of your opinion of Google Vacation Rentals. Have you even noticed a booking? Because this isn't brand new. This has been around for a while. Again, for those who've been watching this channel, you know, we've been talking about it for a good year, it feels like here. Have you actually had a booking for it? Have you seen any results from it, from any of your properties, from any of your portfolio? This is where I hand the conversation over to you, as we always do here on the podcast. So this is a live, special recording. Doesn't matter if you're tuning in on the video or you're catching back on the audio. Please make sure that you spread the word about this. My one wish of you watching this video right now because you're going to be seeing it on a socials Share this Share this on your personal Share this in Facebook groups share this in LinkedIn groups because it is important. The more that it gets shared the more that people can stop worrying about it. With that being said, have a good morning, have a good afternoon, have a good evening. Thanks for tuning in. As always, stay proactive. Don't be reactive. Let's go and get some diary bookings. For those of you that are coming to the big bash on November 14, I look forward to seeing all of you in person. For those of you that are going to be over in Orlando or Houston, I look forward to seeing you at some events. Make sure you keep an eye out for something very cool that I'm starting which is called the Goat Host. With that being said, take care everybody and speak to you soon.
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