Google steps into Travel industry

From Google Hotel Finder to Google Flight Search, Maps and Tour Finders, Google has licensed its hotel metasearch technology and hired more than 77 engineers.

Google came to realize that the hospitality ecosystem is complex enough that actual domain knowledge is needed.

The question still remains how the Room 77 would work. What about its content including Room Views, its displays of special rates for military personnel and seniors.  So far, Google Travel has not killed Kayak, Expedia, TripAdvisor or anyone else. Google has been vastly experimenting in travel, but as hotel consultant Robert Cole points out ‘Google has zero interest in being an online travel agency’. At the same time it is quietly expanding its reach through a travel cycle turning itself into an ultimate aggregator and one-stop shop.

Just take a look at Google Finder on your Mobile and you will see that travellers have the choice of booking rooms from Booking.com and Google Wallet or navigating to Booking.com website.

The fact is that Google has committed itself in transaction for advertising purposes and this is by no means limited to travel vertical.  “Google wants to extend its reach across the travel lifecycle”.

Google Flight Search now has a link to Google Hotel Finder and Google Maps features Waze traffic reports and tours and activities information. We believe that it might not be long when Google will offer travellers a hotel room immediately after they complete a flight booking. When travellers arrive at their destinations, they might break out their Android device and use Google Carousel to scope out an attraction.

Hotel consultant Cole believes that Room 77 technology might be created to attract a better hotel supply compared to Trip Advisor or Trip Connect.  One day Google might connect them all together in travel, aiming at better effectiveness.

Presently,  a lot of products cannot be really applied to any category.  Field Trip, Tour Planner and mobile services, which have so much relevance to travel, are managed by different groups.  So far, Google did not step firmly into the travel market, but they keep expanding.

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