Service
Local SEO for hotels: the knowledge panel, the map and the price list
A hotel's Google listing is decided by seven things a guest sees in the panel, and most of them are filled in by Google's guesses until the owner does it: hotel class, check-in times, the amenity filters, the photo categories, the price list with or without your own rate. Getting them right is a day's work with months of effect, which is why the listing build is a £250 one-off delivered in 5 working days, and the first thing every monthly tier does.
Not ready for a monthly retainer? The build on its own is £250, one-off. What it includes
What the panel shows
Seven parts of a lodging listing, where each comes from, and what we do
Search your property's name from a phone and read the panel from the top. Every line has a source, and every source is something an owner can control. This is the audit we run before we quote.
| On the panel | Where it comes from | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Photos in the header | The listing's photo categories; guests' uploads when yours are missing | Every room type made up, the bathroom, breakfast, exterior, view, uploaded into the right categories |
| Rating and review count | Google reviews, with Booking.com, Tripadvisor and Expedia scores quoted underneath | A check-out ask that is the same for every guest, replies within two days, no incentives, no gating |
| Hotel class and check-in times | Declared by the listing owner; blank until someone fills them in | Set honestly, matched to the website and the schema |
| Amenities and the filters | Google's fixed list; unticked means missing from that filter in the module | Every true amenity ticked, re-checked after any change to the building |
| The price list | Every OTA you are on, plus your own booking engine or rates typed into the profile | Your rate in the list through the engine or by hand, checked in Hotel Center |
| Description and questions | Owner text and the Q&A section; guests answer each other if you do not | Written for a guest and read by the AI assistants; the parking, dogs and breakfast questions answered |
| The map pin and category | Where the pin sits and which lodging category is primary | Pin on the building; Hotel, Inn, Bed & breakfast, Guest house, Holiday home or Cottage chosen for the bookings you want |
What we find, most weeks
The listing before
- Managed by a former manager's personal account, or by nobody: created by Google from OTA data and never claimed.
- Category set to Hotel for a guest house, or Pub for an inn whose rooms are the business.
- Class and check-in times blank, so the panel says nothing and guests phone.
- Eleven amenities ticked out of forty that are true; missing from the “free parking” and “pet friendly” filters as a result.
- Header photo is a guest's picture of an unmade bed.
- Price list shows Booking.com, Expedia and Hotels.com and no official site. Every name search is a commission.
- Fourteen reviews, the last one eight months ago, none replied to.
Five working days later
The listing after
- Owned by the business's own account, with the manager added by their own login, and video verification done.
- The primary category the property is, the true additional categories, and the pin on the building.
- Class, times, description and every true amenity set, and the same facts in the website's schema.
- Twenty to thirty photos in Google's categories, with a shot list for what is still missing.
- Your own rate in the price list, checked in Hotel Center with real dates.
- The Q&A seeded with the parking, dogs, breakfast and late-arrival answers.
- A review link, the check-out wording, replies to every existing review, and a one-page handover.
Reviews on three platforms
The same ask for every guest, and a reply to every review
Google decides the panel and the module, Tripadvisor is where the researching guest reads, and Booking.com's score you can only move by the stay itself. The routine is one sentence at check-out, one message that evening with one link, a reply within two days, and no incentives, no gating and no family, because since April 2025 those are banned practices with the listing as the penalty.
The review rules and the routineMaps for the rural property
The pin, the directions and the “near” searches
Distance from the searcher is measured from the pin, and guests use the panel's directions button, so a pin in the wrong field is a bad first review before they arrive. For a property outside a town the winnable map searches are “near” something: the lake, the castle, the trail, the wedding venue. The description and the pages behind it carry those, and the tourism board's listing carries them again with the same name, address and phone.
How the pages fit inQuestions hotel owners ask us
What is the difference between the one-off build and the monthly work?
The build is the listing pass done once, in 5 working days, with a handover. The monthly tiers keep it right, add the pages and the review routine, and read the numbers. Properties that only need the panel fixed take the build; the ones that want the shoulder months filled take a tier.
Google shows an OTA's price for my hotel and not mine. Why?
Because the OTAs have a rate feed into Google and you do not. Either your booking engine's connection to Hotel Center has stopped, or it was never made and no rate has been typed into the profile. The fix is part of the build.
Can you get a suspended hotel listing back?
Usually, if the suspension was for a fixable breach: words added to the name, a pin on the wrong building, duplicate listings for one address. Reinstatement takes Google weeks and needs evidence of the real business. We have done it; we cannot promise it.
We have three cottages at three addresses. One listing or three?
One listing per address that has its own signage and a guest could turn up to. Three cottages in one yard is one listing with the units described; three cottages in three villages is three listings, each with its own photos and rate.
Find out what your knowledge panel is telling guests
Send us the property name and the town. You get the listing audit against the seven parts above, the three properties above you in the hotel module, and what it would take, in plain English.