Here comes the first improvement of the year! To enhance the reliability of property searches using Google Hotels Business Data API, we’ve added the possibility to specify more precise location settings in your requests.
What’s new
We’ve supported a new boolean parameter – search_this_area. It lets you control whether to show hotels from the displayed area. When set to false, location_name isn’t appended to the keyword during search.
This parameter is now available in the Live and Task POST Google Hotel Searches endpoints.
Why it matters
In some cases, Google returns no data when a specific location is provided. This update helps prevent such cases, ensuring more consistent data collection.
For example, if you can’t retrieve the results with the default search settings, but the hotels matching your criteria exist, now you can specify "search_this_area": false and send the request again.
How it works
By default, the search_this_area parameter is set to true, and the relevant location_name is appended to the specified keyword.
To disable this when making an API call, simply set the following in the request payload: "search_this_area": false.
Please note that it is not possible to omit location and language parameters. They are still required for the request.
Check this Help Center article to learn more about the new parameter, and refer to our docs to update your payloads correctly.