Whenever there is an update of HBook Connect for which we need to share important information, or for which an action is required on your side after updating, you will find below the detailed instructions.
Consult HBook Connect changelog
Version 1.0.1
After updating, you should check the following points for each property you have listed in HBook > HBook Connect.
Property page
A property now has a website page associated to it.
Hotel property
For Google Hotels, the website home URL is automatically passed as the website page for the property.
You have nothing to do and you will not see this setting.
Vacation Rental property
For Google Vacation Rentals, the website page associated with the property has to be the page on your website where the vacation rental property is presented, and it has to be unique for each property.
By default, HBook Connect will select the page used to display the Accommodation Type associated with the Property, as set in HBook > Accommodation Type > Display option. If you wish to use a different page, you can modify this selection.
The website page for a property can be different from your booking page.
Google calls “Website” the page where information about the property can be found. And “Landing page” the page to which visitors will be redirected to finalize the booking on your website. In a future release of HBook Connect, you will be able to set the landing page.
Property pictures
We now retrieve image data for each image.
We recommend that you check the information associated with each image selected for the Property pictures.
Consult this help article for a recap of Google requirements for images, with our step-by-step for the following important checks:
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Check your image sizes
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Check that you have a proper title for each image
Hotel property
As a reminder, these pictures are not of the rooms, but of the property.
Vacation rentals
For Vacation Rentals properties, we recommend that all images uploaded be shown on the page used to display your property on your website, and that will be shared with Google as the Website page of the property (see above).
Update property information and add translations
After communicating with Google Hotels/Vacation Rentals technical teams, we have been advised to share all listings in English as the default language and to share localized listings in addition.
Any field that is not translatable will not be listed in the “Translate information” section. For these non-translatable fields, you should keep them in your language. This is usually the address details, for example.
If the main language of the country where your property is based is not English, we recommend that you do the following:
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Click on “Add language” to add your language.
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Copy the “Description” information that was added in your language and use it as the translation.
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Add your new “Description” information in English.
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If you have a Property name that can be translated, you can repeat the process for the name of the property. Else, simply copy the property name for the new language.
The key point when deciding if you translate the “Property name" or not is to check the Business name indicated in your Google Business Profile. The name in the property fields should be identical to your profile.
Multiple languages
If you live in a country where different languages are used or if you have a targeted audience with a different language, then we recommend adding these languages and providing translations.
Transmission status
After the update of HBook Connect plugin, an automatic transmission will be done to Maestrel.
Nevertheless, we recommend checking all the points listed above and re-transmitting the information to Maestrel, as it is very likely that you will have some changes.
Go to HBook > HBook connect. Here is the checklist for you to know that you are all good:
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No message indicating that you have some changes that have not been transmitted.
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No message indicating that your property can not be transmitted
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All properties that you wish to transmit have the connection status “Active”
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You can see a “Last transmission” timestamp, and it corresponds to your last changes.
If you are unsure, you can always click on “Transmit information”. 😉