As we pass 700 listings in the Google VR beta, I wanted to take a second to provide a very important update. This may sting a bit, but please read this thoroughly to understand the issue.
At this time, we are only allowing users with a Hosted Site (ie. the website engine managed by OwnerRez) to enter the Google VR beta. Yesterday, we reached out to the users who were already in the beta and were not using a Hosted Site, informed them of this decision, and removed their listings from the integration.
This is nothing something we want to do, but it has to be done to keep the integration in place.
Google measures what they call "Price Accuracy" for all the listings in a particular integration. We have access to a dashboard showing us the Price Accuracy of all users and listings from OwnerRez. Price Accuracy is a measurement of how many OwnerRez listings are showing the correct price on Google. Basically, Google wants to ensure that when a guest clicks through to the landing page (i.e. the user's actual website) to complete the booking, the price they see at the end is the same as what was advertised on Google back at the beginning. They also check for availability and branding to ensure the property looks the same and is still available if it is shown as available on Google.
Price Accuracy is a pivotal part of the integration. The integrating partner (OwnerRez) must maintain a high score or risk being delisted, and that means the entire integration, not just one or two specific listings.
The Price Accuracy score for OwnerRez is very low right now, even though we've been working with many individual users and listings for months to analyze and fix problem after problem. We have dropped into a range where our integration (the entire integration for all users) is at risk of being turned off completely. We don't believe it will come to that, but we have to take drastic actions to make large changes and then work towards bringing back new features after the pricing issues are first corrected.
So why is our Price Accuracy score so low? What's the problem?
As we do with all of our features, we built the Google VR integration with a lot of flexibility in mind. We designed the integration to highlight our user's brand and website - we wanted to give each of you the flexibility to showcase your own website so that it's a direct booking experience when the guest comes to your website from Google.
Our competitors don't do this. Our competitors use a single landing page for all traffic (like bookings.mypmssoftware.com), and force all guests to go through that same experience to book. This is what Google prefers and how their system is used to validate Price Accuracy. It's more of a hotel model where they assume all listings are the same. If you search on Google VR for vacation rentals that are listed by some of our competitors, you will see what I mean. Most of them go to a central booking landing page, not the PM's website. This allows Price Accuracy to be uniform and consistent across all listings.
Because our OwnerRez team built our integration to use each user's personal website, widget, or custom landing page, it means that Google has to check Price Accuracy in different ways for each and every user. This has created several problems:
1) Google's verification system is not designed to do this correctly. We have talked to Google exhaustively about many parsing/verification issues that are not actually correct. What they have deemed incorrect on one user's website may not be the same on another. In many cases, it comes down to presentation - do they believe that "this widget to book on" is the same as the listing that was on Google VR at the beginning?
2) In many cases, our OwnerRez users are using widgets or custom website landing pages in ways that do not correctly show the same rates or availability as what Google is looking for. When Google verifies the landing page, they don't see the same prices, so they drop the Price Accuracy score for that listing.
3) Google does not verify everyone, only a random handful of users day by day. As I mentioned above, Google's verification system assumes that all listings within an integration are the same booking experience. If 10 or 15 verifications fail overnight, they drop the score based on those failures and don't verify the other 500 listings. The next night, they may verify 10 or 15 others.
Solutions and steps forward...
It is imperative that we fix the Price Accuracy problem as quickly as possible. We have noticed that most problems come from those using widgets on other websites or custom landing pages because we cannot guarantee that those widgets and custom landing page experiences will show the correct pricing and availability when Google verifies that page. The users using our Hosted Website tend to be the most accurate as our hosted website booking and property pages use the same structure and forms. While they may be styled differently, the underlying property and booking pages are the same user by user, so our Hosted Website landing pages tend to verify at a much higher rate.
Our current roadmap is this:
1) As of this moment, only Hosted Website users will be allowed to participate in the Google VR integration. We have already removed those without a hosted site and are taking steps to put out a quick update so that new beta users don't see widget/custom landing page options.
2) Work with Google to monitor Price Accuracy scoring and restore our integration scores to excellent.
3) Develop a default landing page that all users can use (no matter your website situation) that uses an OwnerRez-provided guest form, which will accept Google VR traffic and ask the guest if they want to book after showing a standard landing page with charges. This will become the new default landing page option when turning on Google VR. All of the current beta users that were kicked out will be immediately added back using this landing page option.
4) Work to establish our own international verifications and vetting process to allow widget and custom landing page experiences. As with all OwnerRez features, we are deeply committed to promoting your brand and website experience, so we will work to get back to this option as time allows. It will be difficult and take time because of how Google verifies things, but it will remain on the roadmap as a goal for Google VR. However, in the meantime, using the default landing page (bullet 3 above) will make it so that all users can get their listings into Google VR without waiting for this.
I understand this will surprise some of you and create frustration. Please understand that this decision is about creating long-term stability in the Google VR integration and opening it up to as many as possible as soon as possible. This integration is unlike any other we've worked on over the years, but we are committed to making it a success.
It’s unfortunate that those of us that turned on notifications for official updates for this request are all being forced to turn off notifications bc people want to have back and forth conversations in a forum that is meant for official updates. Why not keep this for the official updates and let folks carry their conversations and complaints to a Facebook group or a different forum? Yes I was finally able to turnoff notifications after receiving over 45 in an hour bc people don’t seem to understand that many of us are being notified every time someone typed “me too”. Please keep us updated of any official updates if possible. I guess I will just check back once a month or so.
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It’s unfortunate that those of us that turned on notifications for official updates for this request are all being forced to turn off notifications bc people want to have back and forth conversations in a forum that is meant for official updates. Why not keep this for the official updates and let folks carry their conversations and complaints to a Facebook group or a different forum? Yes I was finally able to turnoff notifications after receiving over 45 in an hour bc people don’t seem to understand that many of us are being notified every time someone typed “me too”. Please keep us updated of any official updates if possible. I guess I will just check back once a month or so.
You can always create a filter in your email system to put them to a folder that doesn't alert you to new messages.
Plus, this is a forum which is a system created for two-way communication. If they just wanted one way comms, they'd do a blog post and not allow commenting.
Very sorry you're disappointed with the GVR connectivity!
We were trying to provide our clients more flexibility in the integration and initial signs showed that our plans should have worked with Google. However, we are now finding this is causing issues with Googles Pricing Accuracy, so we are having to go back to the drawing board and re-engineer our solution.
If there's anything else we can help with certainly let us know!
[Another topic was closed as a duplicate of this topic (Google Free - Listing API Connection)]
Does this mean Q4 launch is a no go?
Thank you for the update! Would this change any focus on the website builder package that you have as well, since it sounds like this will be required to utilize Google Vacation Rental? We originally opted to create our own to give us more options and I see a lot of other PMS out there that also offer website builders (some more attractive than others).
This example has a nice design from Boostly - https://neeksleeps.com/. I'm not sure how much of theirs can be done by the owner or if they do theirs on an individual client basis.
Would love to be added to the Google VR beta if possible. We do use the Hosted Website functionality. I also work in tech, and was a former frontend dev - so think I could provide value in terms of beta feedback.
I'm really confused by the 'issues' being presented as limiting Google Vacation Rentals integration.
Would it not be possible to create a 'Google Vacation Rentals Widget' that MUST be used by those OwnerRez users in order to have Google VR integration? (If an owner doesn't want or care about Google VR integration, they don't use the widget, simple.)
The widget could even include code to verify its use and that it's on the correct landing page on the OwnerRez user's site in order to satisfy Google's requirements. Heck, it could even automatically feed back the landing page location to OwnerRez so Google's verification system always finds the widget in use where it's supposed to.
Or am I missing something?
(Please put me in the beta program ASAP too please. I don't use an OR website, but would for that purpose... it seems a reasonable cost to me. Inquiries that I get from those who found my website through google have a very high success rate.)
It's so pathetic that Google is not available on OR yet! It has been years since they have been talking about it and at least one year since they said it was immanent. I am so tired of all these other useless integrations etc.
It's so pathetic that Google is not available on OR yet! It has been years since they have been talking about it and at least one year since they said it was immanent. I am so tired of all these other useless integrations etc.
While it is frustrating, I would not say pathetic. I hope you are aware that unlike other integrations that build their interfaces INTO OR, this one is where OR has to create connections into GVR, with its own unique set of challenges.
Another point is that if you are listed on Vrbo, Booking.com, Tripadvisor, and perhaps some other OTAs, chances are that your rentals are ALREADY on GVR under those brands. Did it make a world of difference? Please let me know, but it did not for me (I have Booking.com and used to have Tripasvisor listing there, as well as some others that feed into Vrbo).
Have you gone on GVR and tried to use the interface as a traveler? If you did, you will probably see what I saw: it is clunky, not VR-friendly (geared toward hotels), and it will be a sheer miracle for a traveler to find a VR there.
The high expectations of GVR may be misplaced and it just may end up being yet another "useless integration".
Hi Scott,
How do you get direct bookings via Google Search? Are they looking for your name, location?
I'm not Scott, but I went back three pages and didn't find a 'Scott' so I'm assuming the question is for me. I mentioned the high rate of success we have with closing inquiries that come through our website when folks find us via Google.
I hate to admit it, but I have been rather delinquent in finding out and tracking where, why and how these guests find us on Google. All I can tell you is that I will occasionally get direct inquiries that come through our website that appear to have no other source, and the 'kill rate' for those inquiries is much higher than average. We ask everyone, both those making inquiries and those making bookings, where they first heard of us or how they found us. And the majority of those that inquired and booked directly with us through our website respond with 'Google'.
I don't know if that means that they saw us some place else like VRBO, read between the lines and decided to do a search for us by property name, or someone gave them our name and the did a search, or they did a search for our location and the words 'vacation rental' and our website showed up as one of the search results. Honestly, that possibility would boggle my mind, as there are (the last time I checked) roughly 300,000 results for that search on Google. No matter how good one's SEO work is, it's tough to compete with that for attention.
At the same time, I get an email from Google every month telling me something like "86 people found you on Google last month! 'So many' responded with an email, 'so many' clicked on your phone number... etc." Now, 86 people is not a huge number, but when I only need four or six bookings per month (if that), 86 people can be enough to get that one or two extra direct bookings I need and want to fill my calendar.
Google is a mystery to me. I know that if someone has our company or a property name and does a search, they will definitely find us. Even on a blind search (nothing cached, new browser, new computer in a new location) if searching for our name or one of our property names, we usually occupy the first two pages of search results on Google, and at minimum, at least half of the first two pages. But will we show up if someone just types vacation rentals and our location? I doubt it. And yet I get these odd inquiries which seem to suggest it does happen occasionally. If that's the case, I'm shocked and happy about it.
That's why I'm so interested in being on Google Vacation Rentals. It seems to me that there is a synergy that happens when you can be found in multiple places out on the internet. Showing up in more locations builds credibility. Sure VRBO has our listings, and they may feed them to Google Vacation Rentals, but I doubt that happens much... the same with TripAdvisor and others... those sites just have too many 'fancy' properties to promote to try to get traffic back to their site. I don't think my properties are special enough to be the poster boy for any listing site. So I don't expect they actually get into the feed from those large sites to Google Vacation Rentals (I'm not an expert in the mechanics of this, it is just my intuition to say that.) But if I can get my properties on Google Vacation Rentals, with a direct feed back to my own website, which Google is already well aware of, I suspect that there would be a boost for my properties and site on both Google in general, and through Google vacation rentals, as that synergy works its way through the system.
Hi Robert,
thank you for taking the time to respond. And I am not sure where I got Scott from either L O L sorry about that. Would you be able to kindly share your website please? Did you actually register with Google as a business? I am highly interested because I also got inquiry directly to my website and I am not sure how they got to me as well. I need to make sure that I can survive 2024 because this is the first time owning an STR. I feel like I got in at a wrong time.
my website is https://www.lux-oasis.com
Would it not be possible to create a 'Google Vacation Rentals Widget' that MUST be used by those OwnerRez users in order to have Google VR integration? (If an owner doesn't want or care about Google VR integration, they don't use the widget, simple.)
Yes - in fact, that's pretty much the plan (not as a widget exactly, a standalone landing page for Google use, but the same basic idea). That's in development.
We've been working through the Google issues, and are hoping to be able to open GVR integration to everyone using Hosted Websites (well, all properties included on those websites anyway) by the end of the year. The Google landing page, which can be used by everyone else not using Hosted Websites for Google integration, is expected in early 2024.
Ken and Paul, I am not understanding why a website like mine that is using the OR widget for pricing and booking is any different from that on the hosted sites. As far as I can tell, it is exactly the same. Can you explain?
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With the new influx of people joining Hosted websites for GVR, are we likely to see any updates to hosted websites, perhaps a few new templates to add a bit of diversity? Perhaps a built in cookie policy to adhere to new regulations.
