Google Updates EU Hotel Search Results to Comply With DMA

Google is reportedly rolling out changes to hotel-related search results for users in the European Union. The changes appear linked to the company’s obligations under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), particularly the rules requiring designated gatekeepers to avoid giving their own services preferential treatment in ranking and display.

Industry observers have reported that generic queries such as “Hotels in Playa de Palma” now show additional booking and discovery options. Rather than directing users immediately to Google Hotels, the search results may first display several travel providers, each linking to its own hotel listings. This gives users a choice of hotel-search platform before they select a specific accommodation.

A separate module reportedly promotes official hotel websites, including hotel cards, prices, and direct links. If deployed more widely, this could provide hotels with a more visible route to direct bookings and reduce dependence on intermediary booking platforms for initial customer contact.

The reported updates follow the European Commission’s preliminary view that Google’s treatment of Google Shopping, Google Hotels and Google Flights may have favored its own services over competing providers. Article 6(5) DMA prohibits gatekeepers from treating their own services more favorably in ranking and related indexing and crawling than similar third-party services or products.

For hotels, the practical effect may be a more fragmented search journey with several competing visibility layers. Hotels, online travel agencies, and metasearch providers should monitor changes in search-result placement, click-through rates, direct-booking traffic, and the availability of pricing information across EU markets.