Noting a summer uptick in people looking for “places to go on vacation,” Google is providing travel trendlines and other information when you search for hotels and flights. It’s meant to “help you make travel decisions with confidence.”
Because the impact of COVID-19 on destinations can vary, it’s important to stay up to date on the latest travel-related information for places you may want to visit.
Since March, Google Search has displayed “COVID-19 alert” advisories and restrictions from government agencies. The search engine will now show the percentage of hotels that are open in a city, as well as operating flights at the city or county level. This is “based on Google Flights and Hotels data from the previous week.”
Additionally, Google’s full travel experience will surface “trendlines” for flight and hotel availability as a tiny graph. There are also links to advisories and other local sources of information. These two data points are rolling out over the next week.
A new filter, starting with hotel rooms, will only show places with “Free Cancellation” policies. Later this month, google.com/travel will also have that prominently located filter in the main lookup box apply to vacation rentals for those that want a longer and somewhat more private stay
More about Google:
- Google adding coronavirus travel advisories, flight cancellation information
- Google Maps coming back to Apple Watch, now supports CarPlay Dashboard
- New Google Travel site replacing Trips app, brings together Flights & Hotels search
- Google Maps reports surge in biking directions, working to add new routes
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