How To Reclaim Google Listings Spammed By ReservationCounter.com
by Adam on April 10th, 2009
In the past couple weeks we started noticing instances where branded hotel queries on Google Maps will return listings for ReservationCounter.com, a Hotels.com affiliate. It seems that they are taking advantage of a feature in Google Maps system that allows people to add multiple listings for the same address, something that is very useful at times (on-site restaurants, for instance) but probably not intended for this purpose.
Here’s an example of a search query bringing up multiple results for the same property:
As you can see, the first result is actually the ReservationCounter.com listing and not the legitimate listing for the hotel’s branded site. The phone number routes to a call center not managed by the property and the link to the “hotel” actually points to the property page on ReservationCounter.com.
Here is an instance where the only result for a specific property search is a ReservationCounter.com listing.
As Google is commonly inserting local listings for hotel search queries into their natural results, we’re also seeing these ReservationCounter.com spam listings pop up there.
So how much of a problem is this? If you are selling inventory via Hotels.com there is a chance you are affected. If your property is in Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, New Orleans, or New York City there’s a very good chance you are affected. As Hotels.com on average takes 20-25% of booked revenue from their site (ReservationCounter.com as an affiliate takes a percentage of Hotels.com’s cut), the amount of lost revenue to your property could be substantial.
The good news is fixing this problem is straight-forward.
Step #1 is to find out if ReservationCounter.com has spammed your listing by visiting Google Maps and searching for “[your property name] [your city] reservationcounter.com” If you don’t find anything there is a good chance you are safe but make sure to do some alternate searches (i.e. abbreviated versions of your property name, street name instead of city name, etc) to be sure.
Assuming you do find something Step 2 is to reclaim the ReservationCounter.com listing by requesting a pin. The way to do that is outlined below.
Highlight the Listing and Click “Edit”
Click “Local Business Center”
Login To Your Google Account or Create a New One
Select “Edit My Business Information”*
Update Incorrect Information
Scroll Down and Click Submit
Review Your Information and Click “Finish”
Confirmation Screen
At this point you will need to keep a close eye on your incoming mail for the postcard Google will be sending you. Once you receive it log back into the Local Business Center where there will be a listing of your profile with a box that says “Enter Pin” next to it.
Enter your pin and hit “Go” to update your listing.
At this point no more phone calls, traffic and revenue will be sent to ReservationCounter.com & Hotels.com!
*Ideally you want to remove/suspend duplicate listings but that often takes more time for Google to process. This route, while not ideal, is the fastest way to reclaim the ReservationCounter.com listings.
Big thanks to Mike Blumenthal for helping uncover this mess.