walkteach48

Due to the wealth of information on this website about hotels, I been trying to get information about various French hotels using google (Paris, Dordogne, Loire areas). It is difficult to get the hotel's website. Search results are usually tripadvisor and other similar websites. It requires quite a bit of searching (not always successful) to find specific hotel websites. Is there something I don't know? Any suggestions?

Thanks for any help. Maybe, I just have to continue searching...... and searching.....

Travelnut

No, it is a bit of a hunt.
Try these tips:
1) enter the hotel name inside of quotation marks, like:
"hotel rive gauche" instead of hotel rive gauche.

2) look up hotel on www.pagesjaunes.fr - often there is a website link

3) take a few wild shots right in the URL field, like:
www.hotelrivegauche.com, you might get lucky.

4) see if Frommer's web lists your hotel, they put the website on the description (guess Fodor's does, too)

Michael

If you know the name of the hotel, do a search in the French yellow pages. Businesses with web sites usually give the web address in the yellow pages (pages jaunes in French).

indytravel

Nope you aren't doing anything wrong. I think google is pandering to their advertisers.

Three years ago (well before google's IPO) I could "google" a hotel and their site would be in the top 3, usually number 1. It's not been that way for almost 2 years now.

I've found if I have the word "hotel" in the search it's the kiss of death for a barrage of hotel brokerage sites. Sigh. What I've done that helps is change my search words.

For example if I'm looking for

Hotel Metropole
123 rue diderot
Lyon

I never key in the word "hotel".

Instead I key in "metropole 123 diderot lyon". It helps bring the direct website closer to the top.

Probably because most websites will have their address listed. And you haven't triggered the ugly commercial response with the word "hotel".

ira

Hi walk,

You're doing it right.

Try googling Hotel de Paris, Rome.

You will get 275000 hits on hotels in Paris.

walkteach48

Thanks! You have given me some good ideas. Hopefully, they will save me some time.

tedgale

Wherever possible I try to google in the language of the country, to avoid tripadvisor.

It may be sufficient to add a single relevant word.

Obviously "hotel"(avoid! avoid!)and "restaurant" are no good but try adding "chambre" or "tarif".

Betsy

Thanks for your insight, Indytravel. I've noticed that the actual site for the hotel is often on Google's second page, and wondered what was going on. Give me a break! Seems to me, while this may produce revenue, it's counterproductive in the long run. (BTW, Google's HQ is a stone's throw from where this is being typed).

nytraveler

Google is not pandering to their advertisers. these positions are openly sold - the more you pay - the higher the position you get.

Additionally - there are other factors that affect placement - including # of in- and out-links, the number of times the title appers on the web site etc. Determining how best to do all this - what key words to purchase etc - is something of an art - which the propietors of small hotels obviously do;t have the time, money or interest to indulge.

Christina

There are tricks to getting more relevant posts than generic hotel web sites. Aside from using the specific name rather than a bunch of words, it can be helpful to include the street name in the search to narrow things down. Some hotel web sites are just not findable in a google search, either, due to the way they are set up (I don't know why exactly, but know of some hotel web sites that are not found in a search no matter what).

For France, try the hotel section of www.gaf.tm.fr It has areas and maps to narrow the part of France, and then has some very thorough listings of hotels which often include their web site. The suggestion for pagesjaunes may also work.

For Paris, the best source is often the tourist office web site which lists the hotel's own URL www.paris-touristoffice.com

hopscotch

Google search results are not sold but the adverts on the right hand side of the page are sold. Highest bidder gets the highest position. Search results, the main body of google, are determined by the mysterious "google algorithm" which everybody in the internet game is always trying to figure out.

Another option for hotel searching is to use viamichelin.com. Enter your city and after the map appears click the hotels link on the left. A list of about 15 hotels will appear and will be located on the map. Works fine. Some listings include the hotel's web URL and a link. Viamichelin.com is also very good for locating tourist sites.

ira

Google operates by determining the popularity of a website - how many times it has been accessesd and how many links there are to it.

Thus, when looking for hotels, you will get brokers long before you get the hotel's own site.

Michel_Paris

Hi walkteach48,
Good advice so far. Another couple of things you may want to try is to "go up one level", i.e. search regional tourist websites and government organizations.

For example, I need/know of a hotel in Amboise..
I type in Google: tourism Amboise

And then I see:

http://www.amboise-valdeloire.com/an...frame_tour.htm

Under there there is a tab for accomodations, and links to hotel websites.

If I type in: tourism Loire

I see this site:

http://www.anjou-tourisme.com/script...anjou.asp?lg=2

In this site, there is a tab for accomodations, and once again a long list of websites for specific hotels...

The second thing is there are networks of associated hotels, for example
http://www.relaischateaux.com/
and for Paris ( I stayed at one of these)
http://www.timhotel.com/

But outside there are Gites (B&Bs), "regulated" by the government that can be accessed via
http://www.gites-de-france.fr/eng/index.htm

So, it is soemtimes easier to find stuff this way, rather than typing "hotel Paris" or "hotel Loire"

Hope this helps,
Mike

But if you are looking

derekflint

Excellent question, and excellent answers. Here are two more tips:

- a few hotel consolidator sites include links to the hotel's own website. www.hotel.de does this, which IMHO increases both its utility and credibility.

- you can go to www.whois.net and use the "search by domain or keyword" function. I looked for the Hotel Corona in Paris by searching for "hotelcorona". It returned 17 domain names with hotelcorona in them, and oe of them was the one I wanted.