Google removes Vacation Rentals from search in EEA, direct bookings lose an important channel
As of 8 September, Google has removed its dedicated Vacation Rentals module from search results for users in the European Economic Area. The change is part of compliance with the Digital Markets Act and alters the visibility of private accommodation in one of the most important channels for starting the travel booking journey.
Google Vacation Rentals is no longer shown within Google Search to users in the EEA. The module allowed guests to compare properties and then directed them to the booking website, including individual accommodation providers' direct booking channels.
Google Search is changing its travel distribution rules
The change came into effect on 8 September. Google told partners that it cannot currently display the existing Vacation Rentals experience in the EEA, but did not rule out its return in a different form.
That still does not mean the complete disappearance of properties from Google's ecosystem. Hospitable states that existing vacation rental feeds can still support visibility on Google Maps and google.com/hotels, as well as user traffic from outside the EEA.
Google has simultaneously redesigned commercial search results. For hotels, flights and land transport in the EEA, it now documents separate units for aggregators, such as OTAs and metasearch platforms, and for direct service providers. Vacation rentals are currently not listed among the categories available in these new supplier and aggregator units.
The consequences of the DMA will also be felt on the Adriatic
The changes come after the European Commission fined Google 434 million euros in July for favouring its own services in search results. The Commission cited hotels and transport among the affected areas.
For Croatian and Slovenian private accommodation providers the impact is immediate as both countries are part of the EEA. However, the change is also relevant for properties in Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia that receive a large share of their demand from EU guests: with the disappearance of the Vacation Rentals module, one of the pathways by which an EEA user could reach a direct booking from Google Search is reduced.
In a distributional sense, this opens up more room for OTAs and other intermediaries precisely at a stage when owners and property managers are trying to rely less on commission-based channels.
