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Google Business Profile for Hotels: The Free Listing Guests See First

By MarginStay9 min readPublished Updated

Short answer

A Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows your hotel on Google Search and Maps, with your website, phone number, photos and reviews. Claim and verify it, keep your details current and reply to reviews. The room prices and booking links on it come from Google Hotel Ads and free booking links, which are set up separately.

When a traveler searches your hotel's name, the panel beside the results is usually your Business Profile. It costs nothing, it is often the first thing a guest sees, and many independent hotels leave it to Google to fill in. This guide follows Google's own guide for hotels, read on October 5, 2026.

What does a Google Business Profile show for a hotel?

Google says a hotel's information appears in the knowledge panel next to its search results, including the website, directions, phone number, customer reviews, photos and posts. From a verified profile, owners can review traffic metrics, see and reply to Google reviews and keep the information up to date (Google's Business Profile overview for hotels).

Room prices are the exception. Google says the hotel prices and booking links on your hotel's profile come from Google Hotel Ads and free booking links (Google's page on hotel details). A profile on its own does not put your rate there. To show your own price and booking page next to the booking sites, see Google's free booking links, which cost nothing per click, and Google Hotel Ads for small hotels, which are paid.

How does a hotel claim its Google Business Profile?

Google's steps for a single hotel (Google's setup guide for hotels):

  1. Open Business Profile Manager, click Manage now and sign in with a Google Account.
  2. Enter your hotel's name. If it already appears on Maps, Google offers it as a suggestion. Choose it only if every detail matches.
  3. Enter the address. If it does not show correctly on the map, place the marker yourself.
  4. Choose a business category. Google says you can pick a more specific one, such as motel or hostel, where it fits.
  5. Add a phone number or your website, then choose a way to verify that you manage the hotel.

If someone else already manages the profile, Google says you must request ownership. Only a person authorized to manage the hotel's profile should do this.

What hotel details can you edit, and what can't you?

  • Amenities. Google shows a summary of your amenities on Search and Maps. With a verified profile you can edit services and amenities in the Hotel details section, and correct anything wrong (Google's page on hotel details).
  • Highlights. Icons such as "Pet Friendly", "Free Wi-Fi" and "Free Parking" can appear next to your amenities. Google says they are not guaranteed for every hotel.
  • Star rating. Google sets hotel class ratings of 1 to 5 stars, using third-party partners, its own research, feedback from hotels and machine learning that looks at price, location, room size and amenities. They are separate from your review rating. If yours is wrong or missing, you can ask Google to look at it (Google's page on class ratings).
  • Hours. You cannot edit them. Google treats hotels as open 24 hours to their guests.
  • Your restaurant or spa. A business inside the hotel that non-guests can visit can have its own profile.

Keep the name clean. Google's guidelines say your name should be your real-world name, as used on your signage, website and stationery, and that adding unnecessary information to it isn't permitted and could get the profile suspended (Google's guidelines). "Harbor Inn" is fine. "Harbor Inn, Best Cheap Hotel Downtown" is not. Choose the category that completes "this business is a", such as hotel, motel or resort hotel, not a list of what it has.

How should a hotel handle Google reviews?

Ask for them, answer them, and never pay for them. Google says offering incentives, such as free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for posting, changing or removing reviews is strictly prohibited (Google's review tips). So a discount for a five-star review is out.

  • Make it easy. Google suggests asking customers to visit a review link or scan a QR code. A thank-you email after checkout is a natural place for the link, and our guide to email to past guests covers the rules for that email.
  • Reply briefly and personally. Google advises short, polite replies that are conversational, not promotional, so leave offers out of your answers.
  • Handle bad reviews calmly. Protect the guest's privacy, explain what you can and cannot do, apologize when it is deserved, and flag reviews that break Google's policies.

One more rule: reviews posted on Booking.com belong to Booking.com. Clause 4.2.4 of its General Delivery Terms says hotels may not use them without its written consent, so do not copy them to your website.

How does Google decide which hotels show first on Maps?

Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking (Google's local ranking tips). Prominence is how well known a business is, based on information such as how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has. Google adds that more reviews and positive ratings can help, and that verified profiles with complete, accurate information are more likely to show up.

So the work is simple and unglamorous: verify, fill in every detail, add real photos, collect reviews steadily and reply to them.

What should a hotel check on its profile every month?

  1. Search your hotel's name on your phone. Is the name, address, phone number and website right?
  2. Does the website link go to your own website, not a booking site?
  3. Are amenities, highlights and photos current, including any renovated rooms?
  4. Have you replied to every new review?
  5. Does your own booking link appear in the prices on your profile? If not, ask your booking engine or channel manager about free booking links.
  6. Is a booking site's ad the first thing above your profile? Our guide to OTAs bidding on your hotel's name explains what you can do.

To see what each booking that moves from a booking site to your website is worth, use our savings calculator.

MarginStay helps independent hotels bring in direct bookings, including through Google Hotel Ads and Google Search, so we have a stake in this topic. Everything about Business Profile comes from Google Business Profile Help, and the review clause from Booking.com's General Delivery Terms, all read on October 5, 2026. "Harbor Inn" is an invented example.

Google Business Profile: quick answers

Is Google Business Profile free for hotels?

Yes. Creating, verifying and managing a hotel's Business Profile costs nothing. Google says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking. Ads are separate and optional: Google Hotel Ads and Search ads are paid, while free booking links can put your own rate on Google at no cost per click.

Why doesn't my hotel's own price show on Google?

Google says the hotel prices and booking links on a hotel's profile come from Google Hotel Ads and free booking links, not from the profile itself. Your rates have to reach Google through a connectivity partner, such as your booking engine or channel manager. Ask yours whether it sends rates to Google.

Can a hotel change its star rating on Google?

Not directly. Google sets hotel class ratings of 1 to 5 stars from third-party partners, its own research, feedback from hotels and machine learning that looks at price, location, room size and amenities. If your rating is wrong or missing, you can contact Google through Business Profile Help and ask for it to be reviewed.

Can a hotel offer a discount for a Google review?

No. Google says offering incentives, such as free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for posting, changing or removing reviews is strictly prohibited. You can ask every guest for a review, for example with a review link or QR code, as long as nothing is offered in return.

Can a hotel set opening hours on its Google profile?

No. Google says hotels cannot edit their business hours, because hotels are open 24 hours to their guests. Separate businesses inside the hotel that non-guests can visit, such as a restaurant or spa, can have their own profiles with their own hours.

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