Your Google Business Profile Is Free Marketing: Here’s the 15-Minute Audit Most Operators Skip.
If you set up your Google Business Profile when you first opened and haven’t touched it since, you’re not alone. Most accommodation operators do exactly that. Here’s why that’s costing you bookings, and what you can fix in 15 minutes.
Your Google Business Profile isn’t just a digital business card. It’s one of the first things a potential guest sees when they search for accommodation in your area. It feeds directly into Google Maps, Google Search, and increasingly, AI-powered search tools like Google’s AI Overviews. If it’s incomplete, outdated, or thin on detail, you’re handing traffic straight to the online travel agencies (OTAs).
The good news? A proper audit takes about 15 minutes, it’s free, and the improvements you make can start showing results within days. Here’s where to look.
1. Claim and Verify Your Listing (If You Haven’t Already)
Before anything else, is your listing actually claimed and verified by you?
It sounds obvious, but plenty of properties are running on auto-generated Google listings that no one has verified. That means you can’t edit the content, respond to reviews, or add photos. Google has likely created a basic listing for you based on public data. It exists. You just don’t control it.
Go to business.google.com and search for your property. If it shows as “unclaimed”, claim it. The verification process usually involves a phone call, email, or short video recording, and it’s the most important step in this whole list.
2. Check Your Business Name, Category, and Description
These three things matter more than most operators realise.
Business name: Use your actual trading name, nothing more. Don’t stuff keywords in here (e.g. “Sunny Bay Motel Best Motel in Tauranga”). Google will penalise you for it.
Primary category: This one has a big impact on which searches you appear in. “Motel” and “Holiday Park” are both valid primary categories in Google. Make sure yours matches what you actually are. You can also add secondary categories, for example if you have a restaurant, playground, or self-contained cabins.
Business description: You get 750 characters. Use them. Write naturally about what makes your property stand out, including location, family-friendliness, pet policy, and what’s nearby. This is what guests read when they’re comparing options, so make it count. If your description is blank or one sentence long, fix it today.
3. Confirm Your Contact Details and Location Are Correct
Simple, but surprisingly often wrong, especially if you’ve changed your phone number, email address, or website URL at any point. Check:
- Phone number (and that it’s your direct line, not a third-party booking service)
- Website URL (does it actually load, or does it show an error?)
- Physical address and map pin (drag the pin to the exact entrance if it’s sitting in the wrong spot)
If you’ve got a direct booking engine on your site, make sure your website URL links there, or at minimum links to a page where guests can book without hitting an OTA first.
4. Review Your Opening Hours, Including Special Hours
Incorrect hours are one of the most common Google Business Profile problems. If your front desk runs reduced hours over Christmas or Easter and you haven't updated your profile, Google may show your property as closed when a guest checks online. They don't call to confirm. They just book somewhere else.
Update your regular hours, public holiday hours, and any seasonal closures or restricted periods. Google allows you to set “special hours” for specific dates well in advance. It takes five minutes and can prevent a lot of lost bookings over Easter, Christmas, and other public holidays.
5. Add (and Regularly Update) Photos
This is where most operators underinvest, and it’s one of the highest-impact things you can do. Google recommends at least three photos per room type for accommodation properties. In reality, the more quality photos you have, the better.
At a minimum, make sure you have:
- A cover photo showing your property at its best (exterior, ideally on a nice day)
- Interior shots of your rooms, clean, well-lit, and true to life
- Photos of amenities: pool, BBQ area, playground, communal kitchen, spa, etc.
- A shot of the surrounding area or view if it’s a selling point
Update your photos at least once a year, or whenever you’ve made improvements to the property.
6. Fill In Your Attributes
Attributes are the little tick-boxes that appear in your listing, things like “pet-friendly”, “free Wi-Fi”, “on-site parking”, “accessible rooms”, “EV charging”, and so on. Most operators fill in a handful when they first set up the listing and never revisit them.
Go back and check that everything is accurate and up to date. If you have Qualmark accreditation or other environmental credentials, add them to the sustainability section too.
7. Answer the Questions in Your Q&A Section
The Questions & Answers section lets anyone ask a question about your property, and anyone can answer it, not just you. That means guests, competitors, or random strangers may have already written answers on your behalf. Some of those answers might be wrong.
Check what’s been asked and whether the answers are accurate. Then proactively add the questions guests always ask anyway:
- “Do you have a swimming pool?”
- “Is there parking for boats/trailers/campervans?”
- “Are pets allowed?”
- “What time is check-in and check-out?”
Answering these yourself means you control the information, and it saves your team from fielding the same questions over the phone ten times a week.
8. Check Your Reviews and Respond to All of Them
Your star rating and review count directly influence how high your listing appears in search results. Guests also read your reviews before booking, and they pay particular attention to how you respond to negative ones.
Have you responded to every review, positive and negative? If not, start now. Even a brief, warm response to a positive review shows you’re engaged.
For negative reviews, respond calmly and constructively. Acknowledge the issue, explain what you’ve done, and invite them to reach out directly. Never get defensive in public. And if you’re not actively asking guests to leave reviews, start. A simple follow-up message at checkout can meaningfully increase your review volume over time.
9. Post Updates Regularly
Google Posts let you share news, offers, and updates directly on your listing. Most accommodation operators either don’t know this feature exists or set it up once and forgot about it. You don’t need to post every day, but a couple of posts a month keeps your listing looking active. Ideas include:
- Seasonal promotions or packages
- Local events coming up nearby
- New amenities or upgrades you’ve made
- Reminders about school holiday availability
- Direct booking offers (“Book direct and get free late checkout”)
Posts don’t stay visible for long, so make it a regular habit rather than a one-off. Add it to your fortnightly task list.
10. Check Your Performance
Once you’ve worked through the above, take a few minutes to look at your Google Business Profile Performance (previously called Insights). You’ll find this by going to your Business Profile and clicking Performance. It shows you how many people viewed your listing, what search terms they used, how many clicked through to your website, and how many requested directions or called you. It gives you a baseline to track improvement against and a clear signal for where to focus your energy next.
Do this now
If you do nothing else today, start here:
- Confirm your listing is claimed and your contact details are correct.
- Add or replace at least five photos with fresh, high-quality images.
- Respond to any reviews that are sitting without a reply.
That alone will put you ahead of the majority of properties in your area. The rest can follow over the next few weeks.
Your Google Business Profile is either working for you or against you every single day. Fifteen minutes of attention now can mean more direct bookings, better visibility in AI search, and a stronger first impression for every guest who searches for a place to stay near you.
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