Google Releases New Flight and Hotel Search Features

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Google Flights is often one of the first sites that TPG recommends to visit when booking travel. Now, a few new features have been added to Google Flights and Google's Hotel Search that will help to refine your experience — and the additions are coming just in time to help you finalize your spring travel plans.

Google Flights' new Explore feature allows travelers who don't have anything too specific in mind to delve into their options. Let's say you only have a few dates set aside and a budget for your flights. Google Flights can find destinations based on your requirements from your origin city. For example, you'd like to get out of town for your birthday in April, but don't want to spend more than $250 round-trip. The Explore page will pull up the destinations that will meet the requirements: Memphis is currently showing prices as low as $237 round-trip. This feature also works with the flexible dates feature in which users can scan the best prices within a month time-frame.

Google Flights also now shows insights on flight prices, which indicate whether the price is low, typical or high for the route. The feature can indicate future predictions and can notify you when it's the best time to book based on price.

As for Hotel Search, a couple key features have been added as well. Now, you can sort your hotel results based on the factors that matter to you, whether it's a preferred price, a brand that you're loyal to or special features. If you choose to filter the hotel results by "Deals," Hotel Search will provide you with hotels whose prices are more than 15% lower than usual. You can also filter the results by amenities, in case you're looking for a spot that has a pool or a fitness center.

All in all, new additions to Google allow for an intuitive user experience, more refined results and a better understanding of your options when booking, which can be really helpful if you're adamant to get the best bang for your buck.