Google may be rolling out updates to its hotel search results based on the European Commission's requirement for Google to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Despite Google not being a fan of the requirement, it seems Google needs to make changes to its search results as a result.
This is not to say Google has not made changes already, it did in 2024 and throughout. Google even did its own test that showed how DMA'ing the results would not be good for hotels - if you believe the results.
That being said Lluc B. Penycate, the hotel SEO, spotted a lot of changes for hotel search results in Google within the EU. He posted these changes on X and wrote, "I think Google has begun rolling out a major change to Hotel Search in the EU." "Following the European Commission's findings that Google's hotel search experience did not fully comply with the DMA, we were expecting changes to the Hotel Local Pack," he added.
For generic searches like "Hotels in Playa de Palma", the traditional Hotel Local Pack is evolving into something much more complex. He is consistently seeing two new hotel modules that fundamentally change the hotel discovery journey.
There is this new "Hotel Multi-Pack," as Lluc calls it which instead of taking users directly into Google Hotels, Google first presents multiple travel providers and each expands into its own hotel listings.
Lluc then said this "creates an entirely new discovery layer." Rather than choosing a hotel, users first choose the platform they want to browse. Each effectively functions as its own hotel search engine within Google.
After the Hotel Multi-Pack, Google introduces a second module, which is called Hotel Websites ("Sitios web de hoteles"). "This highlights official hotel websites with direct links, prices and hotel cards—creating a dedicated surface for direct suppliers," Lluc wrote.
Lluc wrote "if this rollout expands across Europe, it could reshape how hotels measure visibility and direct demand. The booking journey now includes multiple visibility layers before a user even reaches an official hotel website."
Forum discussion at X.
