This year, the ITB takes place exclusively in the virtual space. Nevertheless, changes in the tourist travel world are preferably communicated during the largest industry event. Richard Holden gave the smaller hotel businesses a nice day today.

Because the Vice President Product Management of Travel by Google announced big things. So it is now also possible for the smallest hotels, directly with their own room prices google.com/travel to be listed. This is an important support for the travel industry ravaged by the pandemic. Holden also stressed that It "of course gives the US technology company the opportunity to prove that the entire price range for a hotel stay can be found directly on Google".

“Until March 9th, Google only showed prices there if they were paid for. This was mainly used by OTAs and meta search engines, which were more willing to pay the click prices and commissions ", says Marco Riederer, managing director of Prodinger Tourismusberatung. The new possibilities mean a change of course in the tourism business model at Google and could also be of great help in the inspiration phase for guests. For hoteliers, it is important to take the right steps in price and sales management in good time. "Especially with regard to the hopefully soon possible touristic restart, high visibility in all available channels is essential in any case", continues Riederer.

Now it is necessary to check what the technical implementation looks like and whether it will be possible for the individual hotel operations to set the prices on their own without excessive effort.