Guides · Google profile
Google Business Profile for hotels: what you can post
A Google Business Profile for hotels is not the same as one for a restaurant or a shop. Some things are missing, some are extra, and one rule is easy to miss. Here is what you can post, and what you cannot.
What is different for a hotel
- No opening hours. Google does not let hotels edit business hours, because a hotel is open around the clock to its guests.
- Instead: check-in and check-out times, services and amenities, and hotel highlights.
- Room prices and booking links, which Google shows next to your details.
Posts: updates yes, offers no
Hotels can post updates on their profile: news, photos, what is going on. What Google's content policy does not allow for hotels is an offer post, or any post that mentions or links to deals, promotions, special offers or discounts. A spring package with twenty percent off is exactly the post that does not belong there.
What to post instead
- The season at your hotel: the terrace opening, the fireplace lit.
- Breakfast, the bar, the garden, a room that was just redone.
- The neighbourhood: a market, a museum, a walk from your door.
- What is new: a charging point, bikes to borrow, a quieter wing.
Use your own photos. A real photo of your own breakfast tells a guest more than any stock image.
What posting does, and what it does not
Google's page on local ranking names three things: relevance, distance and prominence. Posts are not on that list, and Google says you cannot pay or ask for a better local ranking. What Google does advise is a profile that is complete and up to date, and replying to reviews. A weekly update is part of keeping your profile up to date; it is not a ranking trick.