Variables and conditions

Hotel Ads and free booking links include links to landing pages where the users can book rooms. You can define how Google constructs the link to include all additional information about the user and their itinerary. For example, you can include information such as the hotel ID, language, currency codes, and check-in dates in the URL.

Overview

You define the landing page URL in the landing pages file. When the ad or free booking link is displayed, dynamic information in the URL is replaced with actual values. To add dynamic values to your landing page URLs, use the following syntax:

<URL>https://partner_url?param_id=(variable_name)</URL>

The following examples shows a URL that uses Google's variable names instead of actual hotel ID and itinerary:

Example 1

<URL>https://www.partnerdomain.com?hotelID=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)
  &amp;checkinDay=(CHECKINDAY)&amp;checkinMonth=(CHECKINMONTH)
  &amp;checkinYear=(CHECKINYEAR)&amp;nights=(LENGTH)
</URL>

Example 2

<URL>https://www.partnerdomain.com/hotel/(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)
  &amp;checkinDay=(CHECKINDAY)&amp;checkinMonth=(CHECKINMONTH)
  &amp;checkinYear=(CHECKINYEAR)&amp;nights=(LENGTH)
</URL>

When the landing page link is constructed for search results page, Google replaces the variables with the actual values to ensure the URL includes the dynamic information. For example, if the user books a room for 6 nights starting on 5/23/2023 for hotel #42, Google renders the previous link as the following:

https://www.partnerdomain.com?hotelID=42&checkinDay=23&checkinMonth=05&checkinYear=2023&nights=6

Values that Google assigns to the variables in the query string depends on the corresponding data in your Hotel Price Feed, Hotel List Feed and user settings.

For example,the value of LENGTH variable is assigned to <Nights> element from the related itinerary's price feed. Similarly, the value of PARTNER-HOTEL-ID variable is defined in the <id> element from the Hotel List Feed that matched the user's search criteria.

Some variables are subsets of the price feed elements. For example, the CHECKINDAY, CHECKINMONTH, and CHECKINYEAR variables are extracted from the single <Checkin> element in the price feed. Other variables are calculated based on the user's locale and other client settings.

For more information about the sources of variable values, refer to Pricing overview and Hotel List.

URL variables

The following table describes the available variables that you can use to construct your landing page URL:

Conditional logic in URLs

You can use special directives in the <URL> element of a landing pages file to conditionally build endpoints.

The conditional logic supports the following statements:

• if_statement: If true, then the values that follow this condition are inserted into the URL, otherwise the values following the ELSE directive are inserted.

• for_statement: Creates a FOR loop condition that iterates on the number of values provided.

IF and FOR statements include the following:

IF-AD-CLICK example

You can construct a conditional block that checks if the user clicked an ad or free booking link to redirect to your landing page.

The following example uses this directive in a landing page file:

<URL>https://partner.com?hid=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)(IF-AD-CLICK)&amp;adType=1(ELSE)&amp;adType=0(ENDIF)</URL>

In this example, if the user did not click an ad, the result is the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?hid=123&adType=0

If the user clicked the ad, the result is the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?hid=123&adType=1

IF-CLICK-TYPE-HOTEL example

You can construct a conditional block that checks if the user selected a hotel without an explicit Room Bundle. The value of <RatePlanID> element in the <Room Bundle> block of a Transaction message will be set to the implicitly associated room bundle price that the user had selected.

The following example uses this directive in a landing pages file:

<URL>https://partner.com/(IF-CLICK-TYPE-HOTEL)landing(ELSE)landing_room(ENDIF)?hid=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)</URL>

In this example, if the user selected a Room Bundle, the result is the following URL:

https://partner.com/landing_room?hid=123

If the user didn't select a Room Bundle, the result is the following URL:

https://partner.com/landing?hid=123

IF-CLICK-TYPE-ROOM example

You can construct a conditional block that checks if the user selected a Room Bundle.

The following example uses this directive in a landing pages file:

<URL>https://partner.com/(IF-CLICK-TYPE-ROOM)landing_room(ELSE)landing(ENDIF)?hid=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)</URL>

In this example, if the user didn't select a Room Bundle, the result is the following URL:

https://partner.com/landing?hid=123

If the user selected a Room Bundle, the result is the following URL:

https://partner.com/landing_room?hid=123

IF-DEFAULT-DATE example

Use the IF-DEFAULT-DATE conditional statement to set a non-date parameter that your website can then use to trigger custom behavior if the user didn't select a date.

The following example checks if the default date was used:

<URL>https://partner.com?hotelID=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)&amp;checkinDay=(CHECKINDAY)&amp;checkinMonth=(CHECKINMONTH)&amp;checkinYear=(CHECKINYEAR)&amp;nights=(LENGTH)<strong>(IF-DEFAULT-DATE)</strong>&amp;popup_datepicker=true(ELSE)&amp;popup_datepicker=false(ENDIF)</URL>

In this example, if the user didn't select a date, the result might be similar to the following URL that shows default date selections:

https://partner.com?hotelID=123&checkinDay=23&checkinMonth=05&checkinYear=2023&nights=1&popup_datepicker=true

If the user selected a date, the result might be similar to the following URL, depending on the itinerary they selected:

https://partner.com?hotelID=123&checkinDay=23&checkinMonth=05&checkinYear=2023&nights=2&popup_datepicker=false

IF-HOTEL-CAMPAIGN example (Hotel ads and free booking links clicks)

You can construct a conditional block that checks if the user clicked an ad that originated from a hotel campaign.

The following example uses this directive in a landing page file:

<URL>https://partner.com?hotelID=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)(IF-HOTEL-CAMPAIGN)&amp;hotel_campaign=(CAMPAIGN-ID)(ELSE)utm_campaign=(CAMPAIGN-ID)(ENDIF)</URL>

In this example, if the user clicks on a hotel campaign URL, the result is the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?hotelID=123&hotel_campaign=12345678

If the click is not on a hotel campaign URL (e.g. regular search campaign), the result is the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?hotelID=123&utm_campaign=87654321

This is useful when you want to distinguish the traffic of hotel campaign clicks from any other clicks.

Blank CAMPAIGN-IDs with FBL clicks

If the click is from a free booking link, then IF-HOTEL-CAMPAIGN returns TRUE and CAMPAIGN-ID value is set to blank as shown in the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?hotelID=123&hotel_campaign=

You can use IF-AD-CLICK conditional statement to prevent blank campaign ID as shown in the following example:

<URL>https://partner.com?hotelID=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)(IF-HOTEL-CAMPAIGN)(IF-AD-CLICK)&amp;hotel_campaign=(CAMPAIGN-ID)(ELSE)&amp;FreeBookingLink(ENDIF)(ELSE)utm_campaign=(CAMPAIGN-ID)(ENDIF)</URL>

IF-PAYMENT-ID example (Hotel Ads only)

Use the IF-PAYMENT-ID conditional statement to vary the URL based on whether the click is a result of the PPS commissions program or not. The example below checks if a click came from the PPS commissions program and assigns a value to the booking_source parameter based on the result:

<URL>https://partner.com?hid=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)&amp;booking_source=(IF-PAYMENT-ID)(PAYMENT-ID)(ELSE)cpc(ENDIF)</URL>

If the hotel is part of the Commissions program, the result is one of the following URLs:

• If no IATA number has been assigned to Google:

  https://partner.com?hid=123&booking_source=commissions

• If an IATA number has been assigned to Google:

  https://partner.com?hid=123&booking_source=01234567

Otherwise, the result is the following URL:

https://partner.com?hid=123&booking_source=cpc

IF-PROMOTED example (Hotel Ads only)

You can construct a conditional block that checks if the user clicked on a Property Promotion Ad.

The following example uses this directive in a landing pages file:

<URL>https://partner.com/(IF-PROMOTED)1(ELSE)0(ENDIF)?hid=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)</URL>

In this example, if the user selected a Property Promotion Ad, the result is the following URL:

https://partner.com/1?hid=123

If the user didn't select a Property Promotion Ad, the result is the following URL:

https://partner.com/0?hid=123

IF-RATE-RULE-ID example

You can construct a conditional block that checks if the user selected a conditional rate and if that is the case then the value of the <RateRuleID> element in the <Rate> block of the transaction message is used.

The following example uses this directive in a landing pages file:

<URL>https://partner.com?hid=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)(IF-RATE-RULE-ID)&amp;customerType=42(ELSE)(ENDIF)</URL>

In this example, if the user did not select a conditional rate, the result is the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?hid=123

If the user selected a conditional rate, the result is the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?hid=123&customerType=42

IF-USER-LIST-ID example (defined in Google Ads)

If you set bid multipliers for audience lists in a hotel campaign in Google Ads, you can use IF-USER-LIST-ID in conjunction with USER-LIST-ID to set a parameter on your website for a customer who belongs to a certain Google Ads audience list. You may want to do so for tracking purposes or to customize your website for members of audience lists.

<URL>https://partner.com/?hid=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)(IF-USER-LIST-ID)&amp;audience_list=(USER-LIST-ID)(ELSE)(ENDIF)</URL>

In this example, if the user wasn't a member of an audience list, the result is the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?hid=123

If the user was a member of the audience list 12345678, the result is the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?hid=123&audience_list=12345678

IF-VERIFICATION example

If you need to check whether Google generated the URL for testing or automated validation, you can use IF-VERIFICATION.

<URL>https://partner.com/?hid=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)(IF-VERIFICATION)&amp;isgoogle=true(ENDIF)</URL>

In this example, if Google didn't generate the URL for testing or validation, the result is the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?hid=123

If Google generated the URL for testing or validation, the result is the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?hid=123&isgoogle=true

FOR-EACH-CHILD-AGE example

You can construct a conditional block that populates the maximum age of each child occupant, as specified in the Hotel Price Feed.

The following example uses this directive in a landing pages file:

<URL>https://partner.com?adults=(NUM-ADULTS)&amp;children=(NUM-CHILDREN)(FOR-EACH-CHILD-AGE)&amp;age=(CHILD-INDEX)_(CHILD-AGE)(END-FOR-EACH)&amp;hid=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)&amp;</URL>

In this example, if the itinerary had 2 adults and 2 children with ages 0 and 17 respectively, the result is the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?adults=2&children=2&age=0_0age=1_17&hid=123

If the itinerary had 2 adults and 0 children then the result is the following URL:

https://www.partner.com?adults=2&children=0&hid=123

General rules when building URLs

All variables are optional. You are not required to insert any variables in your landing page URL. However, using variables to pass itinerary and user information generally creates a better experience for the user and aids you in conforming to Google's policies.

The following general rules apply when defining constructed URLs in a landing pages file:

• All variables are surrounded with open and close parentheses.

• Query string parameters must be separated by an ampersand ("&") in the final output. Because the ampersand is a special character in XML and the landing pages file format is XML. Therefore, you must use the encoded entity "&" in its place. The final output renders an actual "&" character. For example:

  <!-- Do this: -->
  <URL>https://www.partnerdomain.com?hotelID=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)&amp;nights=(LENGTH)</URL>
  
  <!-- Do NOT do this: -->
  <URL>https://www.partnerdomain.com?hotelID=(PARTNER-HOTEL-ID)&nights=(LENGTH)</URL>
  

  You must also URL-encode special characters that you might include in the landing page URL. For example:

  • space (" "): Replace space characters with "%20;" in the <URL> element
  • forward slash ("/"): Replace forward slashes with "%2F;" in the <URL> element

  Not all non-alphabetical characters must be URL encoded. For example, hyphens ("-") doesn't need to be URL encoded. For a list of common characters that must be URL encoded, consult URL Encoding.

• Values for a single parameter can be constructed from multiple variables. The following example constructs a single parameter, checkinDate, from the CHECKINDAY,CHECKINMONTH, and CHECKINYEAR variables:

  <URL>https://www.partnerdomain.com?checkinDate=(CHECKINDAY)%2F;(CHECKINMONTH)%2F;(CHECKINYEAR)</URL>
  

  This example results in a URL that might look like the following:

  https://www.partnerdomain.com?checkinDate=7/23/1971
  

• You can use any ID for the name of the query string parameters. Your server processes these values. However, the values that you pass are limited to the list of available variables.

• You can use up to five custom variables in addition to the list of available variables.