Adding Booking Functionality to a Campground

[Harmony Huskinson]

From what I can tell, the "Campground," category on GBP doesn't include the booking functionality that is available for properties with "Hotel," as the category. Does anyone have insights into this ever changing? I think if I switched from "Campground," to "Camping Cabin," I'd probably have more luck here, per these guidelines. Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[Phil Rozek]

@harmony, I've seen the booking functionality for "Campground" GMB pages and other non-entities. You should be able to opt in without changing your category:

Set up bookings through a provider - Google Business Profile Help

When you manage your bookings through another booking provider, you get web and app services that seamlessly use your customer’s Google Account. Your customers also benefit from automatic booking remi

support.google.com

You can integrate with a third-party booking service if you already pay for one, but I don't think you need to use a paid third-party service to opt into bookings.

 

[Harmony Huskinson]

Thanks Phil! It's very interesting to hear you've seen campgrounds with this functionality, that's helpful!

My profile doesn't show a menu option for "Booking," in the left menu (which Google says it should in the guidelines you shared), and I filled out a previous version of the form about 2 months ago (the format for this form has since changed) and never received a response. Google's policy also says "First, you’ll need to ensure the properties you represent are providing their business information, rates, and availability to Google," which we are not doing, but I assume if we applied Google would theoretically help with this.

I'll fill out the form again, but how long do you think is an appropriate time to wait for a response and do you have any recommendations about how to follow-up if I don't receive a response again? Thanks so much for the help!

 

[Phil Rozek]

Sure thing, @harmony.

Google's policy also says "First, you’ll need to ensure the properties you represent are providing their business information, rates, and availability to Google," which we are not doing, but I assume if we applied Google would theoretically help with this.

Yes, I believe you'll need to do that before anything else can happen. You'll need to do that through one of the partners on Google's list.

I'll fill out the form again, but how long do you think is an appropriate time to wait for a response and do you have any recommendations about how to follow-up if I don't receive a response again?

We're all part of a captive audience without tickets to another show, so there's no telling how long you'll wait. I don't think you'll end up needing anyone's personal help, because this whole process should be pretty mechanical: you start using a booking provider, and then fill out the form. Just the same, if you do need to follow up, the basic question I'd ask is, "What step have I missed, and what do I do now?"