Google Vacation Rentals is in Private Beta. It is an invite-only channel at this time and all Private Beta slots have been filled. This document is for those who have been invited to use as they initiate setup.
OwnerRez has partnered with Google Vacation Rentals (GVR) to provide an integrated API connection between the two systems. This allows OwnerRez users to handle their listings and bookings from Google Vacation Rentals efficiently.
Google Vacation Rentals is part of Google's Hotel API and simplified vacation rental listings are more likely to be published faster. The more complicated your listings are (multiple properties, discounts, promotions, etc.) the longer the GVR onboarding process can take.
- Requirements
- What is synchronized?
- Setup
- Brand
- Booking Window & Duration/Channel Rules
- Change Property Mappings
- Publish Listing
- GVR Tracking
- Discounts
- Surcharges
- Delist
- FAQs
- Does Google Vacation Rentals use cookies for tracking?
- Do I need a Google Business Profile? Does Google Vacation Rentals have any affiliation with my Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business)?
- How do I add Pet Fees to Google Vacation Rentals?
- I can't find my listing when I search Google Vacation Rentals!
- I have reviews on my Google Business Profile. How do I make sure that they are listed in Google Vacation Rentals?
- I see my property listed on Google Vacation Rentals but it's not sending potential guests to my OR Hosted Website?
- Why doesn't my property appear in the GVR search results when I search for a property with 10+ guests?
Users can expect a delay of 2+ weeks before their properties go live on Google Vacation Rentals due to a manual onboarding process by Google Vacation Rentals. OwnerRez has put in significant efforts and is continuously working towards expediting this process.
Requirements
- Each Google Vacation Rentals Brand requires its own GVR connection, meaning that users who maintain multiple brands must configure each GVR connection separately.
- If you have properties across multiple Hosted Websites, you will need a Google API connection for each of your websites. Similarly, if you have multiple external sites, you'll need a separate Google API connection for each site.
- Room-sharing is not currently supported in Google Vacation Rentals. They only support full properties.
- GVR property images must fulfill the following requirements.
- Each property should have a minimum of 8 photos (at least 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, and 1 common area).
- All images must have captions or alt text for accessibility.
- Use the best possible quality images, provided that they fit within the following constraints:
- Recommended resolution: 1920 x 1080 px
- Maximum height: 4000 px
- Maximum width: 4000 px
- Maximum overall size: 10 MB
- File format: JPG, JPEG, PNG
- Orientation: Landscape
What is synchronized?
Our integration pushes listing content, rates, reviews, and availability to Google Vacation Rentals. OR requires that users have an OwnerRez Hosted Website or an Integrated Website that may use a WordPress Plugin configured so that Google Vacation Rentals can link directly for guests to book.
Setup
Property Description Override
It is not necessary for users to create a specific Google Vacation Rentals Property Description Override, as the OwnerRez Website Headline and Description will be pushed to GVR.
If users choose to create a GVR Property Description Override, note that the Title field contains the default {PDESHEAD} property headline field. If users want their Public Property Name to be displayed, they should add the {PPUBNAME} Public Property Name to the Title field.
Hosted Website
OwnerRez recommends that users who use a Hosted Website configure their GVR integration by navigating Settings > Channels > + Connect a Channel > Connect Google Vacation Rentals.
In the Landing Page section, choose your Hosted Website.
Finish the configuration and click Save. Potential guests viewing your GVR listing will be sent directly to your Hosted Website Book Now page to complete their booking. Users will know if an inquiry or booking came from their GVR listing through Listing Site Tracking.
Integrated Websites
To set up your Google Vacation Rentals integration, use the invite link you were sent.
OwnerRez users that have a published Integrated or External Website using a WordPress plugin with their OwnerRez data through the use of our widgets and/or our API for Apps should follow these instructions.
- Create a new live OwnerRez Hosted Website specifically for their GVR integration with a GVR.domainname, e.g. gvr.fancyrentals.com.
- Configure the Subdomain configuration for the new GVR.domainname.
In the Landing Page section, choose your new GVR-specific Hosted Website.
NOTE: If you have properties across multiple hosted websites, you will need a Google API connection for each of your websites. Similarly, if you have multiple external sites, you'll need a separate Google API connection for each site.
Brand
There are precise Brand instructions. Adding a brand logo is optional for now and can always be added later.
Each GVR Brand requires its own GVR connection, meaning that users who maintain multiple brands must configure each GVR connection separately.
The Brand logo image must adhere to the following guidelines.
- The image must be square (PNG preferred).
- It cannot contain more than three text characters.
- Have a transparent or non-white background.
- No alcohol, violence, or sexual content.
- Be no more than 4 Mb in size with sizes between 72 x 72 pixels and 200 x 200 pixels.
Booking Window & Duration/Channel Rules
Select your Booking Window & Duration, and Cancellation Policy, and click Save.
Users won't see their property/ies show up for a while on Google as it's a manual process on Google's end.
Since GVR sends guests directly to your Hosted Website to book, users can control whether guests can Instant Book (IB) or Request to Book (RTB) through their OwnerRez Hosted Website.
Change Property Mappings
Users can Change Property Mappings when their property/ies are visible on their Google Vacation Rentals Channel within OwnerRez. Click on Change Property Mappings.
The Google Vacation Rentals Listing ID should be prepopulated. Users can either use the Included? dropdown menu to select Include all properties.
Or simply check the Included? checkbox for each property that they wish to map to Google Vacation Rentals and click Save.
Publish Listing
From the Change Listing Status dropdown menu, select Publish.
GVR Tracking
OwnerRez does provide Hosted Website Listing Site Tracking, and which link potential guests click on to get to your website on Google Vacation Rentals determines whether that is tracked in any potential inquiries and/or bookings.
If potential guests click on this link to your website, no listing site tracking will occur.
But if potential guests click on this link to your website, Google Vacation Rentals listing site tracking will occur and be tracked in any potential inquiries and/or bookings.
Discounts
Price accuracy is very important to Google Vacation Rentals. Complicated discount structures can affect the accuracy of your property's price, resulting in lower search rankings.
Automatic Discounts can be applied or excluded from your Google Vacation Rentals listing but could include:
- No discount
- Single discount that has no restrictions on seasons
- Multiple discounts that have no restrictions and don't overlap with other discounts (similar to AirBnB discounts)
OwnerRez recommends excluding any complex discount configurations from your GVR listing. Including complex discount configurations, such as stacked discounts, will likely generate GVR nightly rate errors, resulting in lower search rankings.
Surcharges
Similar to discounts, complicated surcharges can affect the accuracy of your property's price, resulting in lower search rankings as Google prioritizes price accuracy.
Surcharges can be applied or excluded from your Google Vacation Rentals listing but most likely include a cleaning fee.
Delist
Coming soon!
FAQs
Does Google Vacation Rentals use cookies for tracking?
Google uses industry standard cookies for tracking and they will offer the owner/host to run Google Ads for promotion which will also track the prospective guest's GVR journey. OR did some Tor-based anonymous searching to test and found that it worked fine after agreeing to some basic cookies.
Do I need a Google Business Profile? Does Google Vacation Rentals have any affiliation with my Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business)?
No, creating a Google Business Profile is not necessary to integrate with Google Vacation Rentals. There is no connection or affiliation between Google Vacation Rentals and Google Business Profiles (formerly Google My Business).
How do I add Pet Fees to Google Vacation Rentals?
You can't. Google Vacation Rentals does not support Pet Fees, however, users can charge guests Pet Fees after booking.
I can't find my listing when I search Google Vacation Rentals!
The Google Vacation Rentals search always defaults to Hotels as Google Vacation Rentals is part of Google's Hotel API. To locate your listing in your property's location, click on Vacation rentals.
Or
I have reviews on my Google Business Profile. How do I make sure that they are listed in Google Vacation Rentals?
All reviews from OwnerRez are synced and displayed on Google Vacation Rentals. Google Business Pages have no affiliation with Google Vacation Rentals, as they are two different entities.
We recommend that users import all of their individual property reviews that are currently displayed on their Google Business Page into OwnerRez so that they can be synced and displayed on Google Vacation Rentals.
I see my property listed on Google Vacation Rentals but it's not sending potential guests to my OR Hosted Website?
Some Google Vacation Rentals property listings are from 3rd party aggregators (Bluepillow, Vio, etc.) that have pulled your property listing details from elsewhere (Vrbo, Expedia, etc.) and posted it to GVR. Unfortunately, OwnerRez has no ability to keep those 3rd party aggregators from listing your property on Google Vacation Rentals.
Why doesn't my property appear in the GVR search results when I search for a property with 10+ guests?
Google Vacation Rentals is part of Google's Hotel API and does not support searches for vacation rental properties that can host 10+ guests.