Activate Room Booking Module (RBM) in Google Hotel Ads

Felipe Bravo, Head of Digital Marketing. "When I was studying marketing and advertising, my goal was to learn about the offline world and television ads. By chance, my first job was at a dot.com, and everything changed. Thank goodness!"

As we announced a few weeks ago, Roiback has been the first Spanish technology company and one of the first in the world to integrate directly with BoG (Book on Google), the Google Hotel Ads (GHA) solution that allows you to complete the hotel booking without leaving the Google environment, instead of a "click-out" that redirects to the hotel's website. One of the advantages of activating your hotels in Book on Google is the option to access the additional Room Booking Module (RBM) section.

What is Room Booking Module (RBM)?

RBM is an extra module of Book on Google, which allows you to show the prices and content of the different room types and give the user the possibility to start the reservation directly from this module, being redirected to the BoG process.

If I already have standard Google Hotel Ads campaigns active, am I already using RMB?

No. To activate the RMB module, you must first activate Book on Google completely or only partially with the RBM option, since Room Booking Module requires the use of BoG.

If you do NOT have active GHA campaigns, contact your DCS immediately, and they will advise you on how to get them up and running in a few days, since, as you already know, GHA already accounts for 65% of the total sales of Metasearch engines, a channel that, grouping the rest of the Metasearch engines, accounts for around 15%-20% of the total sales of the direct channel (Roiback hotel data).

Can I activate standard Google Hotel Ads campaigns and also Book on Google?

Yes, but you can only combine standard Google Hotel Ads campaigns with the extra Room Booking Module. In other words, if you activate BoG completely, the entire booking process will be carried out within the Google environment, both in the standard section that you already know (with the price comparison of the official website and the OTAs), and in the new RBM section.

So, what is the best recommendation, activate Book on Google or leave the standard Google Hotel Ads campaigns?

Our recommendation for the moment is to only activate the Room Booking Module + the standard Google Hotel Ads campaigns.

Why don't we recommend Book on Google completely?

Book on Google is a relatively new booking system created by Google to eliminate friction during the customer's purchase process, particularly on mobile devices, and trying to improve the user experience. In any case, it represents too drastic a change in navigation right now, and users are not used to this new process. It is preferable to wait a prudent amount of time until this new booking process is a little more established within the Google ecosystem's purchase cycle.

What advantages does it have then to activate the standard Google Hotel Ads campaigns + the Room Booking Module of BoG?

The first thing is that today, activating RBM is a great opportunity, since it is an extra addition to your GHA configuration. By adding RBM to your GHA activity, you can get more visibility, more clicks, and therefore more bookings. Right now, there is practically no competition in RBM, and the OTAs are not participating, so it is the time to be the first and occupy that space at the lowest possible cost.

Book on Google is active in Spain, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden; therefore, your Room Booking Module campaigns will also have visibility in these markets.

Ok, I want to activate it. What should I do? Does it have an extra cost or any limitations?

Activating it is very simple; you only have to contact your DCS and request the activation of the Room Booking Module. You will have it ready in a few days. Neither Book on Google nor RBM have any extra cost since they are part of the integration you already have with Google Hotel Ads, and you will only pay Google the cost of the clicks or commission that you already have configured in your GHA campaigns.

Yes, you should take into account some limitations, such as that when activating BoG (and therefore RBM), you will not be able to show rates from your Loyalty program since Google does not allow you to register in your program while browsing in its environment, but it should not be a barrier to activate RBM since in the standard Google Hotel Ads campaigns you will be able to show these prices. Book on Google does not support rates with POS as an associated payment method, but at Roiback, we have worked on a solution that will allow you to send this type of rate (consult with your DCS).

Don't wait any longer and contact your DCS to activate the Room Booking Module of Book on Google.