Google Places for Business - multiple accommodation listings

[turnbullholdingsltd]

Hi there

I have a client who runs a holiday rental accommodation business in Australia. The business model is: a single brand (+ website) with multiple holiday homes (each with their own physical address).

So, I have two questions:

1 - She currently has her Google Places for Business configured where there is one 'brand' Places account with an individual listing for each holiday home. How is it best to link the Google Places account to a (yet to be created) Google+ profile?

2 - Google's quality guidelines are a little grey around 'rental accommodation'. She does not run a real estate company but the properties are technically being rented which I fear contravenes Google's quality guidelines for Google Places. Does anybody experience in this area (the competition is doing it left, right and centre).

Thanks in advance!

Laurie

[Ron_McCabe]

Laurie,

This is an interesting problem.  This is how I would look at it.  If these were bead and breakfast's with separate web sites and addresses Google would not penalize anyone for setting up multiple Google Local accounts.  On the other end if you had a single property and listed each condo as a separate entity and they all had the same phone number you would probably be penalized.  As you say this is in an undefined area so what I would suggest is this:

1. if there is a separate phone number and address for each location I think you are OK setting up separate listings. If they all have one office and one phone number coordinating the rentals I think you might run into problems.

2. If this is not the case what I would do instead is set up a sub page on the web site with appropriate schema mark up (schema.org) for each local address.  The pages themselves should have localized content for each address. It would serve you to have video as well as pictures with localized descriptions.  If oyu are doing blogs at a minimum I would set up your tags so that there is a tag for each location and create blogs specifically for each location. I would also consider setting up google authorship on your G+ page so that your localized content for each property is distributed in this way.

As far as the G+ profile this is is easy to set up under the Google account by simply filling out the profile information in the account.

Let me know if I am on track with my answer or if you require further clarification.

Ron

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Laurie,

Your concerns are on target. The Google Places Quality Guidelines are very clear on this:

Rental or for-sale properties, such as vacation homes or vacant apartments, are not eligible to be listed on Google Maps and should not be verified. Instead, verify the listing for your sales or leasing office or offices. If you have a property with an on-site office, you may verify that office location.

If you list a business in Google Places for Business, it means that it is a staffed location to which customers come to have a transaction during listed business hours. A rental property does not meet this definition. The exception to this would be an SAB (service area business like a plumber) that goes to clients to serve during listed business hours, but this is also not your client's business model.

Unfortunately, what your client (and her competitors) are doing is a violation of the guidelines. I know it can be really tempting to break rules when you see so many competitors getting away with it, but it's very risky to consider this a justification for violation. If Google wakes up to what's going on (and they probably eventually will) they may not only suspend all her rental listings, but her legit listing, too, leaving her with no local presence. Getting back into Google's good graces after something like this can be next-to-impossible.

So my advice - and I'm positive that this is what a Google staffer would tell you, too - would be to get rid of those ineligible listings before they cause a breakdown in trust between the business and Google. If she takes the high road when Google cracks down, she will likely thrive while less rule-abiding competitors fall by the wayside.