Online Travel: Deep dive into the top of the funnel. The last Google Hotels analysis worth doing?

Research evidence excerpt

Online Travel: Deep dive into the top of the funnel. The last Google Hotels analysis worth doing?

2 July 2026

Global Hotels & Leisure

Online Travel: Deep dive into the top of the funnel. The last

Google Hotels analysis worth doing?

This (annual) note details our annual proprietary analysis of Google Hotels. We analyze Richard J. Clarke, FCA

+44 20 7676 6850 ~13,000 hotels, across every US state and major European country. We look at who is

richard.clarke@bernsteinsg.com bidding to win the online “auctions”, the level of price competition and any other changes

at Google Hotels. The 2026 iteration is once again pro-OTA - post DMA competition on

Mark Shmulik Google Hotels has dropped (49% fewer booking options in the US), organic listings have

+1 917 344 8508

mark.shmulik@bernsteinsg.com been de-prioritized, and fewer direct options are listing. The Google Hotel product itself is

also becoming less relevant, with OTA sponsored spots dominating before a consumer even

Niall Mitchelson reaches the hotels search function. However, there remains key caveats for the OTAs (1) AI

+44 20 7676 7144 disruption is coming - Google is likely to launch their agentic AI travel product in the coming

niall.mitchelson@bernsteinsg.com

weeks (2) Despite fewer options price competition remains - smaller OTAs offer the best

price 77% of the time in the US and 58% in Europe, with Super.com (private) particularly

Lasith Siriwardana

+44 20 7550 2191 aggressive (3) The direct options that remain are pushing harder on sponsorship - a sign they

lasith.siriwardana@bernsteinsg.com are becoming more sophisticated in their distribution approach.

Is Google hotels relevant? Google hotels is a vastly different product to when we wrote

our first deep dive into the product.