Google adds flights price tracking, Hotel Deals and Tips

Features rolling out over the next few months

Google is introducing a number of improvements to its flights and hotel search on both mobile and desktop.

The company says the intention is to make it easier for people to find the right flight or the right hotel, in their price range, and in turn, help connect their partners with potential customers.

Flights price tracking

Airline passengers can track flight prices in Google Flights. They can track fare changes for a date and route combination or track specific flights. When prices either increase or decrease significantly, Google lets them know by email or Google Now cards. This is rolling out over the course of the next few weeks in all 26 countries where Google Flights is available.

Hotel Smart Filters

You can also filter hotel searches for very exact criteria — if you want to look for four-star hotels in Chicago that allow pets, you can.

People can filter hotel searches based on their specific needs. So they can, for example, filter based on rating or price. They can also search for more specific hotels like adults only in Ibiza for less than 100 euros (good luck with that one).

This feature is available in the US and will roll out globally later this year.

Hotel Deals

When people are searching for hotels they will see a “Deal” label. This mean that Google has spotted that a hotel’s price is lower than usual compared to historical pricing or when there are discounts to the normal rate for those dates.

In tests, Google sees that hotels marked as deals receive about twice as many bookings as other hotels.

Hotel Tips

Tips provide information when users are searching for hotels. Google may show Tips to people when they could save money or find better availability by moving their dates slightly. For example, you may see a Tip like, “Save $105 if you stay Wed, Jul 13 – Fri, Jul 15”.

Hotel Deals and Tips is rolling out globally beginning now and over the coming months.

N.B. Image credit: Google