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Google muscles in on OTA business
In a move likely to rile some of its biggest spending travel trade advertisers, Google is pressing ahead with a more direct role in online hotel booking.
The search engine struck a deal this week with hotel-booking tech company Room 77 which will add some of Room 77’s developers to the Google payroll.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Google will add more reviews and photos of individual hotel listings directly on the search page, inspiring web surfers to book direct, bypassing online hotel search sites such as Expedia and Priceline, which happen to be some of Google’s biggest advertisers.
The move is to encourage hotel operators to place more ads directly on Google rather than relying on online travel agents which can charge as much as 25% in commission.
It plans to ramp up visibility of its ‘hotel price ads’ that show room rates and one-click availability from the search page.
It is a bold move as online travel agents spend billions in ad placement on Google each year.
The report estimates Priceline Group and Expedia alone will spend a combined $2.5 billion during 2014.
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TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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