Google has added a new tab to local search knowledge panels which assigns grades to hotels based on their location.
Hotels are graded from 1 to 5 – with 1 being a terrible location and 5 being a spectacular location.
The overall score is an average of three individual scores (which are also graded on a 5-point scale):
- Proximity to things to do
- Proximity to transit
- Airport access
Each of these scores is calculated based on data from Google Maps.
Here is an example taken from the knowledge panel for the Delta hotel in downtown Toronto.
In order to access this knowledge panel tab, you have to conduct a general search, such as “Toronto hotels,” and tap on one of the hotels in the local pack.
For whatever reason, it’s not possible to get a hotel’s location score when searching for a hotel by name. Maybe that will change in the future, but that’s how it works at the moment.
For what it’s worth, most of the knowledge panels I looked at had grades in the 3-point range. The highest grade I encountered was in the low 4’s.
In other words, if you’re searching for a hotel with a perfect 5-point score for the location it seems unlikely that you’ll find one.
This feature appears to be widely available to all searchers, although it’s only available on mobile.
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