Somewhere in your Google Ads account, a campaign is spending money.
Chances are you didn't build it. An agency or a helpful nephew took care of it. But have you ever wondered where the price the ad shows is coming from?
Well, if you did not build the campaign, and you haven't messaged your nephew to check in on the bookings campaign, there's a chance that Google was the one filling your ads with rates it found on other sites.
In other words, your ads have been wearing somebody else's number.
On September 30, 2026, Google will be busier getting ready for Halloween and will stop supplying hotel rates for advertisers who never sent their own.
Did that spook you? (Probably not)
I don't know for a fact if they will be getting ready for a major Halloween party, but one thing is true: third-party rates for hotel ads end on September 30, 2026.
Hotels that relied on the borrowed price will see their Hotel Ads stop serving. Booking.com and Expedia will still be in the price comparison. The hotel will not.
If your booking engine already sends rates to Google, you are probably fine. If nobody can tell you for sure, you have until Wednesday and one question to ask.
So how did the borrowed rate work, anyway?
Here's the short version.
If your hotel ran Performance Max for Travel Goals without a Hotel Center account, Google didn't leave the price box empty. It filled it in for you, using rates it found on other sites. Google calls these third-party rates.
And you had no say in that number. Not you, not the agency, not even the nephew.
Nobody at the hotel picked it. It just sat there next to Booking.com and Expedia, with your name above it.
So what actually happens on October 1?
- Your affected campaigns stop serving across all Hotel Ads inventory. That includes the booking module and Travel Promotion Ads.
- Performance Max keeps running on Search, Display and YouTube. (Good news: Google says there's nothing to do there.)
- The OTAs stay put. Triptease notes the update doesn't remove Booking.com or Expedia rates from Google Hotels.
- Set up a direct price feed, in Hotel Center or through an integration partner.
- Link it to your Google Ads account.
- Then recreate the affected campaigns with similar bidding and budgets.
Does this even apply to you?
Only if your Hotel Ads run on rates Google sourced for you. Everything else carries on as it did last week.
| Your setup | Affected by Sept 30? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel Ads priced with Google-sourced third-party rates, including Performance Max for Travel Goals with no Hotel Center link | Yes. Hotel Ads stop serving | Get a direct feed live, link it, recreate the campaigns |
| Rates already reaching Google through Hotel Center or an integration partner | Not by this change | Ask your provider to confirm the setup meets Google's requirements |
| Bing, Tripadvisor, Trivago | No. Google-only change | Nothing |
So no need to rebuild your whole distribution this week. One channel changed. Fix that one and leave the rest alone.
So what do you actually need to do before Wednesday?
Send one message to whoever runs your Google Ads (agency, nephew, whoever it is). Today, if you can:
Where does Google get our room rates from, and is our Google Ads account connected to a Hotel Center account?
Then find their answer in the table below.
| The answer you get | What it means | Your next step |
|---|---|---|
| "Our booking engine sends them" or "Yes, Hotel Center is linked" | You send your own rates | Ask for written confirmation that Hotel Ads keep serving after September 30 |
| "Google pulls them" or "It all runs through Performance Max" | You are on the borrowed rate | Set up a direct feed, link it to Google Ads, recreate the Hotel Ads campaigns |
| A pause, or "Let me check" | Nobody knows yet | Treat it as affected. Ask for a written answer by Tuesday |
Agency can't build the new setup in time? Call your booking engine provider and ask whether they're a Google integration partner.
And if the date slips past, the same three steps still work in October. You just lose the days in between.
Now, whose price is it going to be?
After September 30, the price beside your hotel in Hotel Ads is the one you send. Google stops filling it in. So your rate sits right next to Booking.com and Expedia, on the page where a guest is making up their mind.
Getting that rate to Google is your booking engine's or integration partner's job. Deciding what it should be is where we come in.
Ampliphi is revenue management software for independent hotels without a revenue manager. It suggests rates from your booking pace and occupancy, runs on top of the PMS you already use, and nothing goes live until you approve it.
Pricing that moves when the market does, with you still the one who decides.
So picture October 1. Google is off planning its Halloween party. Your hotel shows up right next to Booking.com and Expedia, and the price beside it isn't borrowed. Nobody's wearing it for you. It's yours, and you chose it.
Sources
- About Google third-party rates for hotel ads, Google Hotel Center Help
- Google is ending third-party rates for Hotel Ads: What hotels need to know, Triptease, August 18, 2026
Hector Crosswell leads growth and go-to-market at Ampliphi, the revenue management system for independent hotels. Over a decade in B2B SaaS demand generation, RevOps, and marketing technology, now working directly with the independent operators who run Ampliphi.
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