Google is rolling out a redesigned hotel search experience on desktop, which mirrors the redesign introduced to mobile search earlier this year.
The redesign offers a more modern look and feel, as well as a set of features you might expect from a dedicated travel site like TripAdvisor.
The hotel search experience on desktop includes:
– Photos from the hotel and other travelers
– Hotel information, such as neighborhood and location
– Hotel reviews from around the web that can be searched by keywords like “air conditioning”
– A detailed description of the hotel, complete with highlights and amenities
– Price comparisons across most major booking sites
Google has also brought its hotel grade feature to desktop search, which was previously only available on mobile.
This feature involves Google assigning a grade to a hotel, from 1 to 5, based purely on where it’s located.
Hotels are graded on a 5-point scale – with 1 being a terrible location and 5 being a spectacular location.
The overall score is an average of three individual scores (which are also graded on a 5-point scale):
– Proximity to things to do
– Proximity to transit
– Airport access
Each of these scores is calculated based on data from Google Maps.
To access many of these new features, users have to first conduct a general search such as “hotels in Chicago.”
From there, users have to click on the local 3-pack of hotel suggestions that appears below the paid search results.
Searching for a specific hotel by name will not return the new design for hotel searches.
