What is metasearch, and how is it different from a booking site?

A guest searches for a hotel or a town. The metasearch site shows each hotel with the prices several sites offer for the guest's dates, side by side, and the guest clicks the one they want.

Google says that when a guest clicks a booking link on Google, they go to the partner's website to finish the booking, and that changes, cancellations and refunds are the partner's to handle. Kayak says the same of itself: as a travel search engine, it doesn't sell or process reservations.

Google also says its hotel prices come from its partners, such as hotels, added to with prices from across the web, and that the average nightly price it shows for a hotel is the median of its rates.

• A booking site, or OTA, takes the booking and keeps a commission on it.
• A metasearch site takes no booking. It shows the prices and passes the guest on.
• Booking sites advertise on metasearch: Google says the hotel ads on Google Search and Google Maps come from hotels, online travel agencies and metasearch companies such as Kayak.
• So the same guest can see your hotel on Google, click a booking site's price, and book there: you pay that site's commission on a guest who was searching for you.

Google says its paid booking links carry an “Ad” badge and are chosen by an auction that weighs each bid and the ad's quality, and that Google may be paid when someone clicks a hotel ad, or in some cases books. It also says hotels don't pay Google to appear in its hotel search results and can't pay to change their ranking there.

Google says its results are sorted by relevance unless the guest chooses otherwise, and that booking links are ranked on many things, among them what guests prefer and how accurate each partner's prices have been.

So the order of prices you see is partly paid for. A booking site that bids more can show above your own website.

Google also shows free booking links: a hotel's own website, or a booking site, listed beside the ads at no charge. Google says hotel partners pay no fee for free booking links, and there is no cost for clicks on them.

• A Google Business Profile alone puts your hotel on Google Maps and Search, but, as Google says, without prices.
• For prices, Google asks for a Hotel Center account and your prices and rooms for each night.
• Google says a hotel can't connect directly: its prices come through a connectivity partner, such as its booking engine, channel manager, property management system or central reservation system.
• A hotel whose booking system already works with Google may only need to ask it to start sending prices.

OneHorizyn's guide to Google's free booking links explains how to set them up and how to check yours.

• Search your hotel's name on Google and open its prices: is your own website listed, and at what price?
• Is any booking site shown below your website's price? A guest comparing prices books the lowest.
• Are the prices for the same room and terms? A cheaper price may be non-refundable or for a smaller room.
• Who has the ads at the top of your own listing, and how far down is your website?
• Check dates ahead, not only tonight: weekends and busy dates can differ.