Google Launches Enhanced Travel Search Features

Google has launched new features to help people searching for travel options, according to VentureBeat. The new features will help people find, compare and book trips and accommodations more easily. 

Customers are now able to get personalized search results, and find places to stay — down to the neighborhood. They can also get accurate receipts of how much a stay somewhere will cost, including taxes.

“The sandy beaches in Da Nang, the night life of São Paulo and Korean barbecue from Seoul are all top of mind for people planning vacations this year,” said Google Product Management Director Andrew Silverman. “When you’re ready to start planning your next vacation, [we’ve launched new tools] to help you pick the best hotel for your trip.”

People who visit google.com/travel will be able to not only choose the best times to visit a place, but see what a typical price is for that location. The “what you’ll pay” section shows whether prices are high, low or normal for the time a person plans to visit.

“Where to stay” will summarize neighborhoods and popular tourist attractions. Each place will also have a “location score.”

Google recently merged Google Flights and Google Hotels under the travel umbrella, and shuttered Google Trips, in a move to consolidate everything into one place. CNBC reported that the new site will show the cheapest and most expensive times to visit, and how the weather should be during a stay. The site also shows info for different months of the year, regardless of the initial search. Google stressed that it wants to prioritize personalization as well.

“In your hotel results, we’ll tell you if you’ve searched for or stayed at a hotel before, or if there are similar options to places you’ve stayed in other cities. We’ll also call out hotels that are close to points of interest you’ve searched for,” Google said in a blog post. “For example, if you’ve been researching Tokyo Tower, we’ll highlight how far it is from hotels nearby. These personalized results are only visible to you, and you can adjust your account settings to disable them at any time.”