Why hotel search on Google changed in Türkiye: the Competition Board decisions

Türkiye's Competition Board found in decision 21-20/248-105 (8 April 2021) that Google abused its dominance by favoring its own local search and accommodation price comparison units in general results and blocking rivals from the Local Unit. Google applied the ordered changes to hotel queries on 21 May 2024, after daily fines brought the total to about TRY 482 million.

Open Google on a phone in Türkiye and search a hotel name. Above the ordinary results sits a block of map entries and prices that did not look the same a few years ago. The reason is not a product update but two decisions of Türkiye's Competition Board, and the money is the part easiest to quote. This article reads what the google hotel search competition board decisions actually required, what the results page was meant to change, and what you should check on your own searches today.

What was the case actually about?#

It was about the top of the page. The Board examined whether Google used its general search results page to give its own local search and accommodation price comparison services a better place than rivals.

General search means the ordinary results page people use to find anything, not a specialized travel site. The Board treated it as a market of its own and found the Google economic unit dominant in it. The Local Unit is the block Google shows for local queries, with a map and business entries; a hotel's entry there is fed by its Business Profile, which is a separate product from the price block. Accommodation price comparison is the part of the page that lists prices from several booking services for the same property and dates.

The abuse finding had two limbs. First, an advantage in position and display for Google's own local search and accommodation price comparison services. Second, blocking rival local search sites from entering the Local Unit at all. The fine fell on the economic unit as a whole: Google Reklamcılık ve Pazarlama Ltd. Şti., Google International LLC, Google LLC, Google Ireland Limited and Alphabet Inc., jointly.

The Board found that competition was distorted in two markets: local search, and accommodation price comparison. It did not find that any displayed price was wrong, or that hotels were overcharged. That distinction matters for everything below, because it separates a competition ruling from a pricing one.

What did the Board decide, and in what order?#

Two moments, three years apart: a finding and a fine in 2021, then a remedy design and a second, larger fine in 2024.

The 2021 order was behavioral, not structural. Google was not required to sell or split off a business; it was required to stop disadvantaging rivals in position and display. The clock was six months from notification of the reasoned decision, followed by an annual report to the Authority for five years from the first compliance measure. The full reasoning is in the Rekabet Kurumu's reasoned decision 21-20/248-105 (opens in a new tab) of 8 April 2021.

Google then proposed new local search designs. At its meeting of 21 March 2024 the Board decided to put them into effect and to monitor them for three months. The designs reached local search but not hotel queries. The Board responded with a daily administrative fine under Article 17 of Law No. 4054, set at 0.05% of Google's 2023 gross revenue per day from 15 April 2024.

The Authority announced on 10 June 2024 that Google completed the process on 21 May 2024 by applying the designs to hotel queries, that the daily fine stopped on that date, and that the total for the hotel-query period was about TRY 482 million, as recorded in the Rekabet Kurumu's announcement of 10 June 2024 (opens in a new tab). Read the two amounts as different things: the 2021 figure is the penalty for the abuse, the 2024 figure is the sanction for not applying the remedy to hotel queries.

What does the design change mean on the results page?#

It means rival local search and accommodation price comparison services must not be placed or displayed worse than Google's own services on the general results page.

Position and display is broader than rank order. It covers how high a block sits, how much space it takes, how it is labelled, and whether it appears above the ordinary results at all. The order does not require Google to remove its own unit. It requires that rivals are not disadvantaged against it, which is a comparison, not a ban.

No single layout is prescribed. The page can change again, provided the comparison still holds when the Board looks. The enforcement sits in the monitoring: the three-month watch after 21 March 2024, and the annual reports to the Authority over five years.

A hotel cannot see that compliance test from outside. What it can see is the page as a user sees it, on a given day, in a given place, in a given language. Describe the page only from a dated check. A screenshot from last year is not evidence of what a guest sees this morning.

What should a hotel check on its own searches today?#

Search your own property the way a guest would, from a phone in Türkiye, and record what you see and when you saw it.

Use mobile data and sign out of your Google account, so your own history and your own property do not shape the page. Search the hotel name first, then search the word otel plus your city and district, and compare the two pages. Note what sits above the first ordinary result: a map block, a price block, both, or neither.

Then look at prices. Note which services show a price for your dates, and whether your own website is among them. Compare any price shown with the rate on your own site for the same dates, the same room and the same conditions. Open your Business Profile and check the facts, the photos and the booking link, because the map block is fed from there; the mechanics are covered in Google Business Profile for hotels.

Record date, device and language, then repeat monthly. Results differ by location, language and device, so a single check proves little.

What did not change: price accuracy and landing page rules#

The decisions are about competition between search services, not about whether a price is right or whether a landing page keeps its promise.

The Board ruled on placement and access. It made no finding about rate accuracy, and it set no rule on what a hotel must charge. Accuracy is a separate discipline: the price a guest sees has to be the price on the page the click opens, for the same room, the same dates and the same conditions. How Google's price surfaces work is covered in Google hotel prices: Hotel Center, free booking links and hotel ads.

Mismatches usually come from process, not from bad intent: a rate updated in one system and not in the feed, a room sold out while the feed still shows it, a weekend supplement applied on one side only. The practical fix is ownership: one person or team responsible for what leaves the hotel's system, a defined refresh interval, and a rule for what happens on a sold-out night.

Rate parity clauses are a different legal question with their own decisions, covered in rate parity clauses and the law, and they belong with your adviser, not with this ruling. We do not state which price display programs are open to properties in Türkiye. Availability differs by country and account, so check your own account rather than a blog post.

What is still unsettled, and what should you ask a metasearch supplier?#

The decisions settle a layout question, not a commercial one: they say nothing about how much traffic or revenue moves, and we have no official Türkiye channel-share figure to cite.

The annual reports go to the Authority. They are not published as per-hotel data, so no hotel can read them to forecast its own share. Because we have no official Türkiye channel-share figure to cite, treat any vendor claim about traffic shifting after May 2024 as a claim, and ask for the method behind it.

Ask which inventory feeds the price: the hotel's own system, a channel manager, or a third party, and how often it refreshes. Ask what happens when a rate is stale or the room is sold out, who is told, and how fast the correction reaches the page. Ask which landing page the click opens, and who is the merchant of record if a booking is completed there. Ask what the contract says about accuracy, about removal of a listing, and about how the supplier reports results to you. The background on how rates reach comparison sites is in what is hotel metasearch.

One note on tooling: on our side, metasearch feeds are built with no accepted connection yet, so rates can be published to metasearch engines from the same inventory the hotel's own website uses (see the distribution platform). The questions above still apply to any supplier, including us.

What to do next#

Run the check once, today, and date it. The two decisions explain why the page looks the way it does; the check tells you what your own property actually gets from it; the price and supplier questions decide whether that placement earns anything. Put the check in the monthly routine next to the rate review, and keep the screenshots. If you want to talk through what the results mean for your channels, request a briefing at ai-otel.com/contact.