Google Description for Hotels: Fundamentals, Challenges & Solutions

Managing your hotel’s online presence involves ensuring that your Google Business Profile listing reflects accurate and up-to-date information. One challenging aspect for accommodation businesses is updating the editorial summary, also known as the “Description” in the “Hotel details” section on Google. This guide aims to clarify the process for managing editorial summaries, explain current limitations and suggest strategies to keep your hotel’s profile accurate and appealing.

Fundamentals

The editorial summary is a brief description that appears under the “Hotel details” section on Google. This summary provides potential guests with a quick overview of the hotel’s location, rooms and amenities. Google’s editorial team compiles these summaries based on their own research and a set of predefined guidelines. The process is largely automated and aims to provide a concise, factual description of the hotel. Google’s editorial summaries are intended to be objective and free from marketing language. The focus is on delivering a neutral, informative overview that potential guests can rely on for making informed decisions. These summaries usually follow a predefined structure, sequence and length that cannot be customised, with a focus on the hotel’s location, rooms and amenities.

Example: Offering panoramic views of {City}, this luxury hotel is 1.9 km from {Point of Interest}, 4.7 km from {Point of Interest} and 7 km from the {Point of Interest}.

Refined, warm rooms come with balconies and sitting areas, plus marble bathrooms with designer toiletries. Airy suites add opulent furniture and artwork, and some feature VIP elevators and/or rooftop balconies with whirlpool tubs.

Freebies include a shuttle to {Point of Interest}. There are 2 acclaimed restaurants and 3 bars, as well as 2 outdoor pools and an indoor pool. A gym provides fitness classes, while a posh spa offers a hammam and wellness treatments.

Challenges

One common question from hotel managers is how to update or correct the editorial summary. Unlike other business types, accommodation businesses cannot directly update their business descriptions via the Google Business Profile dashboard. This limitation can be frustrating for hotel managers, especially when the summary does not fully reflect the unique qualities or recent improvements of the property. Google’s editorial team follows strict guidelines that prevent cosmetic or marketing-oriented changes to these summaries and the focus remains on maintaining accuracy and neutrality, in line with their Organic Results Policy.

Another challenge is that for newly created Google listings, the editorial summary may not appear immediately. The generation of these summaries is an automatic process based on Google’s internal timelines, which are not disclosed. As a result, new listings might lack an editorial summary until Google gathers enough information to create one and this process cannot be expedited or influenced.

Solutions

While direct updates to the editorial summary are not possible, there are still steps that hotels can take to ensure their Google Business Profile is as accurate and appealing as possible:

Contact Google Support Team: Google allows hotel descriptions to be updated only if they contain factually incorrect or misleading information. In such cases, business owners can escalate the issue by reaching out to Google’s support team, providing details of the inaccuracies and requesting the necessary corrections. While Google had paused accepting description update requests for a few months, this process has recently resumed and such requests are now being processed. It is important to reiterate that updates for purely cosmetic or marketing-related changes are not permitted and will be rejected. 

Update Amenities & Attributes: Although the editorial summary cannot be directly modified, you can still keep your amenities and attributes up-to-date. This information is critical as it feeds into various sections of your profile and can influence how your hotel appears in search results.

Utilise Google Posts: Google Posts allow you to share timely updates, insights, and important news directly on your profile. This is an excellent way to highlight specific features or promotions that may not be captured in the editorial summary.

Maintain Up-to-date Gallery: Keeping your gallery up-to-date enables you to showcase your property’s features and amenities effectively. By removing outdated images and adding only high-quality, current photos, you can accurately represent your hotel, manage guest expectations and attract potential guests with an accurate and appealing portrayal of the hotel’s premises and offerings. To dive deeper into Google Business Gallery optimisation, explore our devoted article linked here.

Utilise Google’s Q&A section: Accommodation businesses can further engage with potential guests by using the Q&A section of their Google listing to address common inquiries. By proactively posting relevant questions and providing accurate answers, businesses can ensure that important details not covered in the listing’s description are readily accessible to users. For example, business owners can pose questions themselves about amenities, hotel policies, or location specifics and respond with clear, helpful information. To understand how to take advantage of the Questions & Answers feature, refer to this article.

Conclusion

While the limitations on updating Google’s editorial summaries can be frustrating for hotel managers, understanding these restrictions and applying the strategies outlined above can still greatly enhance your property’s presentation on Google. Of course, our team is more than happy to advise on and assist with any necessary actions concerning description updates on Google. Last but not least, by leveraging the available features within our local search management platform, LuauSoft, you can ensure that your hotel’s online presence remains accurate, engaging and optimised for attracting potential guests.