Google Business Profile for short-term rentals: the practical guide

Google Business Profile (GBP, formerly Google My Business) is the free listing that puts your business on Google Search and Google Maps, with its name, address, opening hours, photos, reviews and a button to your website. It's what fills the block of three results with a map (the "local pack") when someone searches for a service nearby.

For short-term rentals it matters because a lot of demand is local and last-minute. Someone driving into the Minho who searches "accommodation Ponte de Lima" or "where to stay Gerês" on their phone sees the map and Google's listings before they see Booking. Appearing there with good photos and reviews brings you relevant, free visits that can go straight to your website, with no OTA commission.

Before you start, though, you need to know one rule: Google treats accommodation differently from a shop or a restaurant. The next section explains how.

Most guides skip this part, and it's the most important one. Under Google's official guidelines, a business must have in-person contact with customers during its stated hours (a front desk, a reception or someone on site), and Google explicitly lists rental properties such as holiday homes as ineligible.

In practice, this draws a clear line:

• More likely to be eligible: an accommodation business with a physical presence and in-person contact, such as a guesthouse, a hostel, a rural tourism house or a B&B with a reception, or a property management company or agency with an office where guests are received. There is a place where customers are served in person.
• Not eligible: a single holiday home or apartment with no reception, office or staff on site, managed entirely remotely. For Google, this is a rental property, not an establishment.

This rule is Google's, and it changes over time, so always check the current version of Google's Business Profile eligibility guidelines before you create a listing. If your property has a reception, signage and in-person service, go ahead. If it's a single house managed remotely, read the next section before creating a listing that Google may suspend.

Creating a GBP listing for a property that doesn't meet the rules can get the profile suspended, and you lose any reviews it has collected. It isn't worth the risk.

For holiday homes and apartments without a reception, Google's own route is its accommodation results (Google Travel / Hotel & Vacation Rentals) rather than a Business Profile. There, your property appears in accommodation searches and on the hotel map, usually through a connectivity partner (your PMS, your channel manager or an aggregator that distributes listings to Google). Ask your software provider or property manager whether you already appear on Google Vacation Rentals.

There is also one option that is always in your hands and that nobody can suspend: your own website, set up for local SEO. Everything else builds on it, and we come back to it at the end.

Go to google.com/business, sign in with the business's Google account and search for your rental's name; if a listing already exists, claim it rather than creating a duplicate. Use a dedicated account rather than your personal one if you can. Listings are sometimes created by Google or by guests, and duplicates compete with each other in the rankings.

If there's no listing, create a new one. You'll need the exact business name, the category, the address and contact details. Use the property's real name as it appears on the signage and in the registration, without adding the town or keywords ("Casa do Rio Braga best accommodation" breaks the rules and can get the listing suspended).

Google only shows the listing publicly once it has confirmed that the business is real and that you run it. Google may verify by video, phone, email or a postcard with a code, and the methods available depend on the type of business and the region.

For accommodation, Google often asks for video verification, filmed to show that the establishment is real: the entrance, the sign with the name, the reception or the area where guests are served. Have this ready. Verification can take a few days, and until it's done the listing won't appear in searches.

According to studies of local ranking factors, the primary category is one of the strongest signals for appearing in the right searches. Pick the one that best describes your business from the accommodation categories Google offers. Some that are often available:

• Vacation Rental Home / Serviced Accommodation: for furnished short-term accommodation.
• Bed & Breakfast: if you serve breakfast and have a reception.
• Guest House / Hostel: for guesthouses and hostels.
• Cottage / Holiday Home / Cabin Rental: variants for houses and villas.
• Vacation rental home agency: for management companies.

Choose one precise primary category and add relevant secondary ones without overdoing it. The categories on offer vary by region and change over time, so look at what Google shows you now and pick the most accurate option rather than the most ambitious one.

NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone. Google compares this information across the web to confirm that the business is real and where it is. If your address is written in different ways ("Rua" in one place and "R." in another, or one phone number on the listing and another on your website), Google becomes less certain, and that uncertainty can cost you places in the results.

Write the name, address and phone number exactly the same way on GBP, on your site, on Booking, Airbnb and Facebook, and in any directory where you appear. Even small differences count. Local SEO studies link consistent NAP to a better chance of appearing in the local pack, so it pays to standardise everything.

On your website, show the address and phone number clearly (in the footer and on a contact page) and mark them up with LocalBusiness structured data, so Google can link the site to the listing without any doubt.

Photos are often what makes people click. For accommodation, show what guests actually want to see:

• The outside and the entrance, so guests recognise the place when they arrive.
• Every room: bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and living room, in natural light.
• Views and outdoor space: balcony, garden, pool, the Minho countryside.
• The details that set you apart: a fireplace, breakfast, local decor.

Use good, real photos (no stock images), update them when you renovate and add new ones regularly, as profiles with fresh content tend to get more interaction. The cover photo and the logo create the first professional impression.

Reviews are one of the main parts of "prominence", the popularity signal Google uses to rank local results. More reviews, with better and more recent ratings, help you move up. For guests, they're the social proof that helps them decide.

Ask guests who had a good stay for a review, with a friendly reminder at check-out or a message on departure day that includes the direct review link. Never buy reviews or offer gifts in return, because that breaks Google's rules. Reply to every review, good or bad: thank guests for the positive ones and answer the negative ones calmly, with a solution. Replying shows Google and future guests that the business is active and attentive.

Your profile shouldn't sit unchanged. Use Posts to announce last-minute availability, low-season offers or news. They keep the profile active, which Google takes into account. Fill in the attributes (Wi-Fi, parking, pets allowed, accessibility), because they feed into search filters and relevance.

This next step is what links all of this to direct bookings. Point the website field to your own site, not to your Booking or Airbnb profile. Everyone who clicks that button can book with you without an OTA commission. Where possible, link to a page where guests can see the dates and send a booking request, so they go from Maps to booking with as few steps as possible.

Google ranks local results on three things: relevance (how well the profile matches the search), distance (how close the searcher is) and prominence (popularity and reputation). You can't control where the searcher is, but you can work on the other two:

• Relevance: the right primary category, completed attributes, and your town or region mentioned naturally on your website (not in the listing name).
• Prominence: plenty of good reviews, up-to-date photos, a complete profile and consistent references (NAP) on other websites and directories.
• Activity: regular posts, replies to reviews and new photos show that the business is active.

There's no trick to becoming "number 1", and anyone who promises it isn't being honest with you. What works is a complete, accurate and active profile, linked to a website that backs up the same information. Do this well and, over a few weeks, you'll move up in the local searches that matter.