The short answer
Once your Google Business Profile is claimed and verified, a hotel, guest house or lodge wins bookings by getting six things right: the correct category, your real name with nothing added, a pin on your gate, photos by room and by view, a phone and WhatsApp number with a booking link to your own website, and a steady habit of answering reviews and questions. A wrong category or a pin on the road costs you the exact searches you want, such as "guest house near Entebbe airport" or "lodge near Bwindi". The claiming steps are in our setup guide. This page covers what to do after that.
Short-let hosts face different rules. Google expects a profile to belong to a business that meets its guests at the address, so a single Airbnb apartment with nobody on site often cannot have its own profile, and you should read Google's current eligibility page before you apply. For hotels, Google can show a price box and a separate hotel panel, and a claimed profile is the first step towards the free booking link that sends guests to your own site, although your rates must also reach Google through a booking tool or partner. That link is how you start to win direct bookings back from the booking sites. More on the wider picture is in our hotel marketing guide.
Category, name and pin: the three settings that decide if you are found
Pick the category a guest would search for
Google lets you choose one main category and some extra ones. The main one matters most, because Google matches a traveller's search to categories. Choose what you truly are: Hotel if you have a reception, rooms and daily services; Guest house for a smaller, owner-run place; Lodge for a bush or park lodge; Campground for a campsite. Bed and breakfast fits some homes that serve breakfast to guests. Add extra categories only for things you really run, and never use a category just as a keyword. A restaurant that is open to the public may need its own profile.
A wrong main category costs you twice. A lodge filed under a type like tour operator is less likely to show in lodging searches. A guest house filed as a hotel appears for guests who expect a lift, a pool and a front desk, and they mark you down when they arrive. Google keeps motels as their own category too, so check the category list inside your profile before you choose, because names change from time to time.
Use your real name, nothing added
Google asks for the name your business really uses in the real world: the one on your signboard and on your booking confirmations. Adding words such as "Best Cheap Hotel Entebbe", a phone number or a price is a breach of Google's rules. Your edits can be rejected and the profile can be suspended, and a suspended profile brings in no guests at all. A place name is fine only when it is truly part of your name.
Put the pin on the gate, not the road
Drag the marker onto your entrance gate. If it sits in the middle of the road or on the next building, drivers go past you and Google may rank you lower for searches near you. In Uganda and Kenya a plot number or "behind the market" means little to a map, so the pin does the work. For a lodge at the end of a long track, put the pin on the lodge gate and write the turn-off from the tarmac and the last few kilometres in your description. Test it: ask a driver who has never been to you to follow the pin from the airport.
How do I get my guest house on Google in Diani or Mombasa?
The steps are the same as anywhere. On the Kenya coast, around Diani Beach Road and the Mombasa north and south coast, many places sit down sandy access tracks with no clear street address, so the pin on your gate and a landmark in the description matter more than the street name. Search Google Maps first for your name, because someone may have already created a listing for you. Claim that one instead of making a second. Then verify, and be ready for Google to ask for a video call or a recorded video that shows your location and that you run it, such as your sign, your gate and your reception. The map steps are in how to add a business to Google Maps, written for Uganda but the same on the coast, and our Kenya coast hotel guide covers the market itself.
| Part of the profile | Do this | The mistake that costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Main category | The type you truly are: guest house, lodge, hotel or campground | A broad or wrong type, such as tour operator for a lodge |
| Name | The name on your signboard | Keywords or town names added to the name |
| Pin | On your entrance gate | In the road or on the next building |
| Photos | Rooms, bathrooms, views, meals and the gate | One logo and a few old pictures |
| Booking link | A page on your own site where guests can check dates or send a request | A home page with no way to book |
Rooms, photos and the booking link that turns views into bookings
Say what is true about rooms and amenities
Fill in the amenities Google offers: Wi-Fi, breakfast, parking, airport pickup, pool, power backup, whatever you really have. Tick only what is true, because a guest who finds no hot water after you promised it will say so in a review. In the description, write who you are, where you are, who usually stays (safari travellers, business guests, families) and your check-in times, in plain words.
What category and photos should my guest house use on Google?
The category is the type you truly are, as above. For photos, think like a guest from the US, UK or Europe who has never seen the place and is comparing five properties on a phone. Add photos in groups: the gate and signboard so people can find you, each room type, the bathrooms, the dining area, the garden or pool, and the view from the rooms, such as the lake, the escarpment, the forest or the savannah. Real daylight photos from a good phone beat old, dark ones. Do not use stock pictures or photos of other places. Add a few new photos every month so the profile looks alive.
How do I make my lodge page on Google bring more bookings, not only show up?
Showing up gets you looked at. Bookings come from making the next step easy. Put a phone number in international format, with the country code, because your guests are calling from abroad. Use the same number for WhatsApp and show it on your website too. Then add a booking link that goes to a page on your own site where a guest can check dates or send a request, not to a home page with nothing to click. If you do not have such a page yet, that is the first thing to build, and our direct booking system is made for it. Every guest who books on your own site is a guest you do not pay a booking site commission on, and you can work out what that is worth with the free booking commission calculator.
Reviews, questions and posts: the weekly habits
Reply to every review, the good ones and the bad ones, within a few days. Thank the guest by name, mention one real detail of their stay and, for a complaint, say plainly what you will change. Do not argue and do not blame the guest. People from abroad read your replies to judge how you treat guests. To get more reviews, send each guest a short message with your review link on the day they check out, and never pay or reward guests for reviews, not with money, a discount or a free drink, because Google's rules forbid it and the reviews can be removed. Our guide on getting more Google reviews has the full routine.
Where Google shows guest questions on your profile, answer them yourself with the facts: airport transfer, child policy, breakfast times, road condition in the rains. Google has been changing how questions work, so also put the same answers in your description and on your website. Use posts for real news and offers: a green season rate, a gorilla trekking stay package with a local operator, a festive season deal. Keep each short, with one clear photo and one link to the page where the guest can book.
Why the hotel across the road ranks above you, and what the price box means
Why does a hotel across the road appear above mine on Google Maps?
Google says local results depend on three things: how well your profile matches the search, how far you are from the searcher, and how well known and trusted you are, which comes from your reviews and ratings and from links to you on other websites. Two hotels across a road are equally near, so the winner is the one with the better match and the stronger reputation. Check four things on the rival profile: its main category, how many reviews it has and how recent they are, how many photos it has, and whether it replies to guests. Then match or beat it on each. Distance you cannot change, and nobody can pay Google for a better place, but the rest you can work on, and a proper website that backs the profile helps. Our tourism SEO guide explains how the website side works.
The price box and the hotel panel
When a traveller searches for a hotel in a town, Google may show a box with dates and prices from booking sites, and a separate hotel panel with rates and a map. These are different from the normal profile, and booking sites and hotel partners usually fill them with rates. Google can also show a free booking link to a hotel's own website, but you must have a claimed and verified profile first, and your room prices and availability must reach Google through a price feed or an authorised connected partner. Ask whoever runs the tool that takes your online bookings whether that link is switched on. Without it, guests who find you on Google may still book through a booking site and you pay the commission.
Short-let hosts: Airbnb apartments and Google Maps
How do I get my Airbnb apartment to show on Google Maps?
Start with the rule, and check Google's current eligibility page for the exact wording. Google wants a profile to belong to a real business that meets customers at its address, and its help pages say a business that only rents an address without working there is not eligible. A rental home or apartment with nobody on site to receive guests is generally treated the same way, so do not expect it to be accepted. Do not invent an office address, use a friend's shop or copy another business's details to get around this. Google can suspend profiles that do, and you would lose the reviews you built.
- If you run serviced apartments with a staffed reception, you may be able to have a profile as a lodging business. Choose the category that matches and use the reception address.
- If you own a guest house or small hotel with a host on site who meets guests, you are a normal lodging profile, and everything above applies.
- If you have one or two apartments and no staff on site, put your effort into your Airbnb page, your photos and reviews there, and a simple website with a booking or WhatsApp request form.
- Never publish a home address you want kept private on a public profile.
The honest truth for a lone Airbnb host is that Google Maps is not your main door. Your own small website, your WhatsApp number and good reviews on the booking sites are. Our guide on why an Airbnb gets no bookings in East Africa goes deeper on this.
A 10 minute monthly routine, and when you do not need us
Once the profile is set up right, it needs about ten minutes a month. Set a reminder for the first Monday.
- Reply to any new review you have not answered (3 minutes).
- Add two or three fresh photos: a new room, a meal, the view this week (2 minutes).
- Check that the phone number, WhatsApp number and booking link still work, and click the booking link yourself. Do not set opening hours as a hotel, because Google asks lodging businesses not to list them (2 minutes).
- Answer any guest question and post one offer or news item (2 minutes).
- Glance at the profile's calls, direction requests and website clicks, and note if any dropped (1 minute).
If you have one property, a free afternoon and a phone, you can do all of this yourself. You do not need us. Talk to us when the profile is right but guests still do not book, because then the problem is usually the website, the reply speed or the way inquiries are handled. That is what our lodge marketing work is for. We are a US-based company with remote teams, including a team in Kampala, and a US team member joins client video calls. We have built direct booking pages for lodges, including landing pages and a direct booking form for Lorato Lodges and Camping near Chobe in Botswana. Under our Safari Growth Program, the promise is "your first new inquiries within 14 days of going live, or we work free until they arrive".
Frequently asked questions
What does it cost to have you set up and look after our Google profile?
Google Business Profile itself is free. What we charge depends on your business: how many properties you have, whether you also need a website or booking page, and how much help you want after setup. We give a fixed quote before any work starts. Send your business name and country on WhatsApp +256 702 946 946 or use the quote form, and we will tell you honestly whether you need us at all.
Can I use the same Google profile for two guest houses?
No. Each property at its own address should have its own profile, with its own name, pin, photos and reviews. Putting two places on one profile confuses guests and can get the profile flagged.
What if someone else already made a listing for my lodge?
Search Google Maps for your name and, if a listing exists, claim it instead of making a new one. Duplicates split your reviews and can hurt both listings. If it shows as already claimed by someone else, use the ownership request Google offers on that listing.
Does a good Google profile replace Booking.com or Airbnb?
No, but it can reduce how much you depend on them. A strong profile with a booking link to your own site lets guests who find you on Google book direct. Many properties keep the booking sites for reach and use Google and their own website to win direct bookings with no commission.