Where a holiday rental can appear on Google
Three doors — only one is fully yours.
Business Profile (Maps)
- Google lists vacation homes among the businesses that are not eligible
- A profile also needs in-person contact with customers during stated hours
Not an option for a holiday home.
Vacation rentals on Google
- Listings with prices and availability in Search, Maps and Google Travel, with free booking links
- They come from Google’s vacation-rental partners, not from owners directly
Possible through a partner integration.
Your own website
- Appears in normal search results at no cost
- You control the title, text, photos and speed
The door you fully control.
Google also has special structured data for vacation rentals, but it is only for sites already connected with a Google Technical Account Manager and the Hotel Center. For a single owner, the realistic path is the third door.
Win the search for your own name first
The cheapest guests are the ones already looking for you.
Returning guests, friends of past guests and people who saw your property elsewhere often search for its name. If your website is the first result for that name, the booking comes to you. Put the exact property name and the place in the page title, the main heading and the first paragraph — and use the same name everywhere you appear.
Write your Google result
Type and watch how it could look — on a computer and on a phone.
- The title contains the property name
- The title contains the place
An approximation: Google has no fixed character limit and truncates titles and descriptions to fit the device width. It may also write its own snippet. Runs only in your browser.
The title fits on this screenThe title would be cut off on this screenThe description fits and says enoughThe description is very short — add details guests care aboutThe description would be cut off — put the key facts firstSix basics Google looks for
- 01
One clear title per page
Property name, type and place. Brand it briefly and keep every page’s title different.
- 02
A description per page
Unique and specific. Google may use it for the snippet when it describes the page better than the text.
- 03
Fast on a phone
Google recommends good Core Web Vitals — main content within 2.5 s — as part of page experience.
- 04
Your own text
Write for your site instead of pasting your platform listing; duplicate pages waste Google’s crawling.
- 05
Photos Google understands
Alt text is the most important image attribute for Google; descriptive file names add light extra clues.
- 06
Search Console and a sitemap
Submit your sitemap and see which searches already show your site.
Be mentioned where your guests look
Google’s own starter guide says promoting your site leads to faster discovery by people and by search engines. For a holiday home that means your town’s tourism pages, local partners you already work with — a restaurant, a surf school, a bike rental — and your own social profiles, all linking to the same address. Every Costa Creative Lab website runs on your own domain, so every mention builds something you keep. This site scores 100 for SEO in Google’s PageSpeed Insights. See how it works.
Sources
- Google Business Profile Help — Guidelinesvacation homes not eligible; in-person contact required
- Google Hotel Center Help — Vacation rentals on GoogleSearch, Maps, Travel; free booking links via partners
- Google Search Central — Vacation rental structured dataonly for sites with a Google TAM and Hotel Center
- Google Search Central — Title linksno length limit; truncated to device width
- Google Search Central — Meta descriptionsunique descriptions; may be used for the snippet
- Google Search Central — SEO starter guidepromotion, sitemaps, Search Console, duplicate content
- Google Search Central — Core Web Vitalspart of page experience
General information. Google policies as checked on 28 September 2026. · Updated
