The Things to do platform enables qualifying partners to show travel activity related items on Google-owned surfaces. The Things to do data feed is used for advertising campaigns in Things to do ads as well as powering various Things to do search experiences.
Things to do surfaces
Things to do products are displayed in various formats across a number of surfaces. To simplify requirements they can in general be split into 4 different modules, the Ads module, booking module, experiences module and operator booking module. Each module have different sets of feed requirements in order to be served, for more information about specific feed requirements see Required and recommended fields.
Things to do Ads module
By fulfilling the requirements for Things to do Ads, products are eligible to serve on Things to do Ads using the Google Ads platform. Once Google Ads accounts are allow listed and linked to a feed integration, feed data such as images, title, ratings can then be used by Google Ads on the various Things to do Ads surfaces.
Things to do booking module
The things to do booking module is designed to show users entry ticket prices to various attraction points of interest (such as Museums, theme parks) as well as provide a way for users to compare prices between various OTAs and the official ticket provider. This module triggered for eligible POIs where Google has the official ticket prices (collected internally or by partners). Guided tours are not eligible for the POI booking module, however is eligible for the operator booking module and the experiences module.
Things to do operator booking module (OBM)
The things to do operator booking module provides a way for tour operators to display their products on their own Google Business Profile entry. Alongside the tour operator products, tours provided by this operator through different OTAs are also displayed.
For list of eligible businesses see Operator booking module eligibility.
Things to do experiences module
The things to do experiences module is designed to show to users the various guided tours and experiences related to a particular points of interest.
Data upload
Product data is uploaded by you to Google using SFTP using SSH authentication. Things to do processing pipeline then processes and converts the data to an internal format, which is then used by the various Things to do platforms to serve content to the users.
The supported upload format is JSON. If there are too many activities to be uploaded in a single file, you can upload the data using multiple files by having the correct metadata fields in each of the uploaded files. The Things to do processing pipeline then consider those uploads as a single feed.
Upload cadence
How frequently the data is uploaded should be based on how often the content of the data changes and how much it changes by. In general, Google recommends you upload a new version of the data once per day, however you can upload more or less often based on the size of the feed and the frequency at which the content changes.
Validation errors and warnings
Once upload has been completed, partners can then see the result of the upload using the Things to do Center. Access are made available to you as part of the integration. The Things to do Center provides up-to-date transfer status of your feed uploads, a listing of product uploaded and any error messages which occurred during processing.
The URL and credentials are shared once integration work has begun.
Things to do policies
Contents uploaded must comply with the following policies:
Products which violate the policies may be taken down by Google without notice.
Getting support
For integration-related technical support, you can reach out to us through our dedicated contact us form.
For contractual questions, speak to your Google representative.