Google Maps might not be the best place to search for the cheapest accommodation when you are open to other accommodations that aren't hotels when planning a journey.
Google Maps focuses on providing a map-based user interface. It's optimized to navigate around geographic locations, and the search features are optimized to find stuff primarily based on things that could be mapped to geographic coordinates, latitude and longitude, like country, city, address, landmark.
On the other hand, Google Search has been optimized to help users refine their search queries that might end on a commercial transaction, in this case, booking an accommodation reservation, as this kind of use gives them earnings for advertising, their booking hotel partnerships, and the services provided to the business to improve their online presence and optimize their indexation (SEO). About this there is a related product: Google Travel.
It's worth noticing that Google Search is integrated with Google Maps. It might show a knowledge box with details of the region, landmarks, city and even accommodation providers. The knowledge box of accommodation providers might include the details you seek.
Google Search has a specific filter for maps, and many results will include a link showing their location using Google Maps and user contributions like photos and videos.
Start by reading
You might also want to use specialized sites. I suggest you take a look at Travel, another site of the Stack Exchange network that is focused on travel questions.
Google Maps is best for taking advantage of searching for accommodations based on the distance from a particular location, using it together with Google My Maps to create a map of your travel plan. It includes some controls to sort results by price, distance and possibly others and shows reviews and user contributions.
The search experience might vary depending on the region that you will be searching. Google has a program called Local Guides to promote user contributions to Google Maps. Check out to see if there is a Local Guides group in the region that you will visit. They might guide you on how to get the most from Google Maps in their region.
Search for accommodations in Google Maps
When opening Google Maps (https://maps.google.com). It will show some buttons to help search. The buttons might vary according to the context, like if you haven't done any search yet or are searching for a city, a landmark, etc. Some of the buttons that might be shown over the map panel are:
- Hotels
- Vacation Rentals
- Amenities
- Rating
- Hours
- All Filters
The Google Maps side panel might show controls to help refine your search. These controls depend on the context, like if you clicked the Hotels button or the keywords included in the search query.
Hotels button
Clicking this button will show a panel with tools to refine the search. One of these tools is a slider bar to set the range of prices.
- Type a region, landmark, city, etc.
- Click the Hotel button.
- Refine your search
Keywords
Besides using the Hotels button, you might want to try using keywords. Here are a few suggestions:
- camping
- campsite
- hostel
- lodging
The search results will show the accommodation amenities if they were contributed (from a database, partner, by users, by the owner, etc.) to Google Maps. Click on a result to view the detail card. The detail card includes controls to help to compare the results.
References
Resources
From the Keywords (Google public relations / corporate) blog
