Landing pages matching rules

Hotel Prices matches a user to a landing page that is defined in the landing pages file or in Hotel Center.

If a user does not match any of the defined landing pages, then the ad won't participate in the auction. This results in a missed opportunity that the Hotel Center estimates for you.

Criteria

Google matches a user to the most appropriate landing page by using the following rules:

  1. The primary match criteria are the following:

    1. country*
    2. currency*
    3. language*
    4. device
    5. google site

  2. The locale criterion first tries to match the user. If there is no match, the locale (country, currency, language) of the hotel being searched is used to find a match.

  3. If a criterion is not declared, it implicitly matches to all available values.

  4. All four landing page criteria—currency, country, device, language—must match before a hotel is matched to the user.

  5. If multiple landing page definitions match, the following rules are applied:

    • The landing page with better match quality is used. For more information, refer to Priority for multiple landing pages.

    • For similar match quality, the one that occurs first in the landing pages file is used.

Match configuration

Each criteria can match in three ways:

  1. Unspecified (*): Match to all applicable values.

  2. Allowed (yes): Match to listed values, never match to all applicable values.

    Setting the status to yes for a country, currency, or language value does not exclude other eligible values. You must explicitly disallow other values.

  3. Not allowed (never): Never match to listed values, match to all other applicable values.

Implicit and explicit matches

Implicit matches
1 and 3 are eligible for implicit matches, when applicable values are used.
Explicit matches
2 and 3 are eligible for explicit matches for the listed values.

When you want to exclude certain countries, currencies, or languages, you should explicitly set their match status to never. You can combine 2 and 3 to describe the abilities of your website. Refer to the examples below.

Device matching

To avoid confusion, we recommend device matching for a landing page, for instance:

  • mobile: Page is displayed on mobile device but not shown on desktop or tablet.

  • desktop: Page is displayed on desktops and tablets but not shown on mobile, even if you explicitly disallow tablet. One way to get around this is to set high negative bid multiplier for tablet.

  • tablet: Page is displayed on desktop unless explicitly disallowed but it is not shown on mobile.

Google sources

Most partners enable the following Google channels in every landing page by default:

  • Local Universal (Prices on Google Search results)
  • Map Results

Examples

This section shows some common examples of simple landing page definitions.

Standard

<PointOfSale id="pos-usd">
  <!-- Explicitly allow US Dollars -->
  <Match status="yes" currency="USD"/>
  <URL>www.google.com/?hotel-id=34876&amp;checkin-date=2023-05-23&amp;checkout-date=2023-05-28&amp;num-adults=2</URL>
</PointOfSale>

Multiple

<PointOfSale id="pos-us">
  <!-- Explicitly allow US and Dollars -->
  <Match status="yes" currency="USD"/>
  <Match status="yes" country="US"/>
  <URL>www.google.com/?hotel-id=34876&amp;checkin-date=2023-05-23&amp;checkout-date=2023-05-28&amp;num-adults=2</URL>
</PointOfSale>

<PointOfSale id="pos-uk">
  <!-- Explicitly allow GB and Pounds -->
  <Match status="yes" currency="GBP"/>
  <Match status="yes" country="GB"/>
  <URL>www.google.com/?hotel-id=34876&amp;checkin-date=2023-05-23&amp;checkout-date=2023-05-28&amp;num-adults=2</URL>
</PointOfSale>

Country

Show ads only in Japan. All other countries implicitly match unless explicitly disallowed.

<PointOfSale id='pos-jp'>
  <!-- Explicitly match on Japan -->
  <Match status='yes' country='JP'/>

  <!-- List common countries to exclude -->
  <Match status='never' country='US'/>
  <Match status='never' country='FR'/>
  ...

  <URL>www.google.com/?hotel-id=34876&amp;checkin-date=2023-05-23&amp;checkout-date=2023-05-28&amp;num-adults=2</URL>
</PointOfSale>

When defining a landing page to match a single country, you typically exclude 10 to 20 countries that yield the highest impressions, as shown in Hotel Center, and include only the ones you want to match.

Device

Show ads only on mobile. The device criteria only matches a value if it is explicitly defined.

<PointOfSale id='pos-mobile'>
  <!-- Explicitly match on mobile only -->
  <Match status='yes' device="mobile"/>

  <URL>www.google.com/?hotel-id=34876&amp;checkin-date=2023-05-23&amp;checkout-date=2023-05-28&amp;num-adults=2</URL>
</PointOfSale>

Currency

Show ads for users whose currency is Euros but not US dollars. All other currencies match implicitly unless explicitly disallowed.

<PointOfSale id="pos-eur">
  <!-- Explicitly allow Euros -->
  <Match status="yes" currency="EUR"/>

  <!-- Explicitly disallow US dollars -->
  <Match status="never" currency="USD"/>

  <URL>www.google.com/?hotel-id=34876&amp;checkin-date=2023-05-23&amp;checkout-date=2023-05-28&amp;num-adults=2</URL>
</PointOfSale>

Language

Show ads only for English-preferred users.

<PointOfSale id='pos-en'>
  <!-- Explicitly match on English -->
  <Match status='yes' language='en'/>

  <!-- List common languages to exclude -->
  <Match status='never' language='es'/>
  <Match status='never' language='fr'/>
  <Match status='never' language='jp'/>
  ...

  <URL>www.google.com/?hotel-id=34876&amp;checkin-date=2023-05-23&amp;checkout-date=2023-05-28&amp;num-adults=2</URL>
</PointOfSale>

When defining a landing page to match a single language, you typically exclude 10 to 20 languages that yield the highest impressions, as shown in Hotel Center, and include only the ones you want to match.

Multiple Countries

Show ads preferably in the US and GB; but might match with another country if there aren't any other landing page definitions.

<PointOfSale id='pos-us-uk'>
  <!-- Explicitly match on the US and/or GB -->
  <Match status='yes' country='US'/>
  <Match status='yes' country='GB'/>

  <URL>www.google.com/?hotel-id=34876&amp;checkin-date=2023-05-23&amp;checkout-date=2023-05-28&amp;num-adults=2</URL>
</PointOfSale>

Country + Language

Show ads only in Japan for only English-preferred users. All countries and languages implicitly match unless explicitly disallowed.

<PointOfSale id='pos-jp-en'>
  <!-- Explicitly match on Japan -->
  <Match status='yes' country='JP'/>

  <!-- List common countries to exclude -->
  <Match status='never' country='US'/>
  <Match status='never' country='FR'/>
  ...

  <!-- Explicitly match on English -->
  <Match status='yes' language='en'/>

  <!-- List common languages to exclude -->
  <Match status='never' language='jp'/>
  <Match status='never' language='fr'/>
  ...

  <URL>www.google.com/?hotel-id=34876&amp;checkin-date=2023-05-23&amp;checkout-date=2023-05-28&amp;num-adults=2</URL>
</PointOfSale>

Priority for multiple landing pages

Multiple landing page definitions can match on criteria. In this case, Google ranks them according to these rules:

  • A user condition match is preferred over a hotel condition match. For example, if one landing page matches only on the user's currency, but another matches only on the hotel's currency, Google chooses the landing page that matches the user's currency.

  • Criteria order, as follows:

    1. Country
    2. Currency
    3. Brand
    4. Language
    5. Device
    6. Google source

    For example, if one landing page matches only on the user's currency, but another matches only on the user device, Google chooses the landing page that matches the user currency.

  • An explicit match is preferred over an implicit one. For example, if one landing page matches explicitly to the user's country but another matches only implicitly, Google chooses the landing page that explicitly matches. And, if there are multiple user criteria defined— such as country and language, and the language is specified—then the user language must explicitly match. Otherwise, the landing page won't be selected.

We recommend matching on the same set of criteria on each landing page in your config. This minimizes the complexity in determining why one of multiple landing pages is matching. Refer to the Multiple example.

For a landing page file setup, if two definitions with the same priorities match, then Google chooses the one that occurs first in the file.

Filter landing pages

To filter a subset of eligible landing pages for a particular hotel, you can use the <AllowablePointsOfSale> element in a Transaction message. For more information, see Pricing & Room Inventory (Transactions) XML Reference.

The following example from a Transaction message enables the hotel to only match pos-mobile and pos-en:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Transaction timestamp="2023-05-24T20:44:56-04:00" id="42">
  <Result>
    <Property>052213</Property>
    ...
    <-- Allow pos-mobile and pos-en to match. All others will not match. -->
    <strong><AllowablePointsOfSale>
      <PointOfSale id="pos-mobile"/>
      <PointOfSale id="pos-en"/>
    </AllowablePointsOfSale></strong>
  </Result>
</Transaction>

Landing pages that are not listed in the <AllowablePointsOfSale> block won't match. If you exclude the <AllowablePointsOfSale> block from your Transaction message, all landing pages are eligible to match.

You can also use the <AllowablePointsOfSale> element if you would like to opt in or opt out of any specific hotels from running on the Click to Call landing page.