Policies
The Google policy for prices exists to ensure a good end-to-end experience for users engaging with your prices on Google for both ads and free booking links. For more details, view the policy enforcement and appeals section of the Things to do content and referral experience policies.
Price accuracy
When a user clicks through from Google to the partner’s booking page, the total price for the product option shown on the booking page should be prominently displayed and it should be the same as the total price displayed on Google. If a product option costs no money to participate in, then Google will display the price as 'Free'.
Booking page: The page on the partner’s site where the user has selected a date and (in most cases) is able to enter purchase details, such as name and credit card information.
Landing page: The page the user is sent to on a partner’s site before taking any additional action. In some cases the landing page may also be the booking page.
Currency
Partners can send prices in any currency. Currencies will be converted to those of the user’s locale to ensure comparability across providers. Partners must direct users to landing pages that default to one of the following:
- The user’s preferred currency (as provided by Google)
- The default currency of the user’s location
- The currency of the destination where the activity is taking place
The product ingestion feed allows partners to define and restrict the countries where their products should be shown.
Fees and taxes
The price that’s sent to Google should include all fees and taxes and should match the final checkout price. This pertains to both taxes and fees collected by the booking partner and those collected at the time of the activity.
Date/time selection and availability
- Initially, we will not support date and time selection for activities listed directly on Google. If prices for an attraction change based on timing (for example, days of week, amount of time before purchase), you must still ensure that the price shown on your booking page matches the price sent. For example, if your weekend price is £50 and your weekday price is £40, you can send us either price, provided that the booking page prominently reflects the price listed on Google.
- Booking windows are generally within one week and are rarely beyond four weeks in advance. The price in the feed and the price displayed on the partner site should be easily identifiable, and available within seven days of the user query. Prices that are hard to discover or unavailable for booking within the next seven days, are not allowed. If there is no availability in the next seven days, then the price in the feed and the price displayed on the partner site should be easily identifiable, and available within 120 days of the user query. This policy allows for bookings that typically happen further in advance, while maintaining price accuracy for those bookings that have availability within one week.
- On restricted availability: Prices shown on Google should generally reflect the ticket that the average user would discover and book. Ticket options for off-peak days or times aren’t permitted.
Global availability
Products should be available to be purchased globally, unless country restrictions are specified in the product ingestion feed.
Discounts
For now, we require standard adult tickets. Prices that are only available for certain user groups, such as local residents, children, senior citizens or veterans, are not permitted. Discounts that are available to everyone are allowed, provided they don’t violate any other policies on this page.
Group prices
Pricing based on group size is currently not supported. The price shown on Google should be the price available to book for a single adult. Products with minimum group sizes are allowed. If more than one ticket is required for purchase, the price sent to Google must be the minimum transaction cost for a group of adults.
For products that require a child ticket for entry, the price sent to Google must be the minimum group price that includes the required child ticket as well as a standard adult.
National parks
National parks typically charge a per-vehicle entrance fee. This is the case in most countries and very common in the US. The most common car entrance fee for a regular-sized car should be submitted to Google. Entrance fees for single adults entering by foot, bicycle or motorbike are not allowed, unless those are clearly the most common or the only way to enter the national park.
Price violations
Google checks partners’ prices and websites for violations of the pricing policy. Inaccuracies will negatively impact product placement and participation in Things to do. This may result in the auction positioning and advertising cost for ads being affected, listings not being displayed or for serious issues, a partner being suspended from the platform.