Need a Hotel? Google Will Find You One Near a Landmark

 

Google’s hotel search feature can now find lodgings based on proximity to a landmark. With the Hotels by Travel Time feature, you can find a hotel within walking distance or within a set time riding public transportation.

 

Here’s how it works:

 

You’re an art history major planning your first trip to Paris, and you want to spend hours at the Louvre in between visits to the Musée d'Orsay and the Centre Georges Pompidou.

 

Go to Google’s map  thumbnail to expand the map and see all of the listings in the area.

 

If you’d rather be within walking distance, click on “Hotels in selected area” underneath the map and choose “Hotels by travel time.” Click on the walking icon and adjust the time bar to a reasonable number of minutes. You’ll see a list of 20 hotels. You can filter your results by price, hotel class and by minimum user rating — both between one and five stars.

 

Specifying a three-star hotel with a minimum user rating of “3” dropped search results to two hotels. Each listing includes a deal  comparison that shows whether the current room rate is higher or lower than its average over the past year. In this case, the cheapest hotel was the Grand Hotel du Palais Royal, with a price 24 percent less than usual.

Keep in mind that both Hotel Finder and its 'Hotels by travel time' search feature are experimental. And filtering by transit time is only available in cities where Google has partnered with local transit agencies to integrate their data into Google Maps.