July 1, 2023.
This was the day that Google stopped processing data from Google Analytics Universal.
If you haven’t done it already or you have skipped a few steps (such as cross-domain tracking with the booking engine), now is the time to utilize the hotelytix’s Google Analytics 4 for Hotels guide and complete the Google Analytics 4 setup for your hospitality brand.
If you are creating a new Google Analytics account from scratch, start from the next section that goes through the New Google Analytics Account setup process.
Otherwise, go to the section Existing Google Analytics Account if you are going to use an existing Google Analytics account.
New Google Analytics Account Creation
If you create a Google Analytics account for the first time or if you want to create a new Google Analytics account (e.g for a new hotel), go to https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/ and log in to your Google Account (with your email) if you haven’t done it already.
Go to Admin > Create Account
- Give the account a Name. e.g “Your Hotel”
- UN-select all the options (you can change these options later)
- Click “Next”
The next step is to create a Property. Go to the New Property Creation section to do that.
Existing Google Analytics Account
The first step is to check that you have admin access to the Google Analytics Account that we are going to setup the Google Analytics 4 (as a property).
To do that, log in to Google Analytics (https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/) and go to Admin > Account Access Management.
If you don’t have account level admin access, ask to be given admin access from the current designated admin.
Don’t forget to read the Google products housekeeping article to future-proof accounts’ ownership and access to the designated persons.
In many instances from our experience and work with several hotels, we have found that the previous external partners (agencies or freelancers) have just one Google Analytics Account and then created and assigned a property for each client / hotel.
If this is the case you have to move the existing property (e.g the existing Google Analytics Universal property) to a new Google Analytics Account before going forward to create a new property for the Google Analytics 4.
Check the next section to find the instructions so as to move an existing property to a new Google Analytics account.
If you have already admin access to the account level and you are ready to create the Google Analytics 4 property, go to the New Property Creation section to do that.
Move Property to a new Google Analytics Account
In the property column, click “Property Settings”, and near the top you will see the option “Move property”. Click it.
Please note that the below steps must be performed by a person that is both admin to the existing Google Analytics Account and the NEW Google Analytics Account that you have created.
This person must choose the destination account (the NEW Google Analytics Account essentially), keep the first option selected, then click the checkbox to “Confirm changes” and click “Start move”.
If everything has been done as described above, the existing property will be moved to the NEW Google Analytics Account flawlessly.
Don’t forget to read the Google products housekeeping article to future-proof accounts’ ownership and access to the designated persons if you have issues with admin access, not access at all, or even account ownership.
New Property Creation
- Give a name for the NEW Google Analytics 4 property (e.g “GA4 – Your Hotel Name”)
- Choose hotel’s country / time zone
- Choose Currency
- Click Next
- Choose “Travel” as a Industry category
- Choose the business size
- Click Next
- Choose “Get Baseline reports” ONLY
- Click Create
- Choose your Country
- Accept the Terms
- Click “I Accept”
Now we are ready to continue with Data Stream creation.
Data Stream Creation
The data stream is the flow of data from your website or app to Google Analytics 4. There are 3 types of data stream: Web (for websites), iOS (for iOS apps), and Android (for Android apps).
For a hotel brand, we are going to create a data stream (for Web) so as to start collecting data.
So, choose “Web” as a platform.
Fill website’s full URL address (homepage) and as a Stream name input hotel’s name again (the stream name can be edited later as well).
In the Enhanced measurement section let everything ON as is.
Click “Create stream”.
Note down (copy / paste) the Measurement ID, we will need it later so as to setup the Google Analytics 4 tracking through Google Tag manager.
Cross-domain tracking between Google Analytics 4 & Webhotelier’s booking engine
We have one more configuration in data stream so as the cross-domain tracking to work property between website and webhotelier’s booking engine.
Go to Admin > Property > Data Streams and pick the Data Stream that you just created.
Click “Configure tag settings”.
Then click “Configure your domains”.
- Click “Add condition” two (2) times
- Keep the “Match type” as “Contains”
- Add as “Domain”:
- In the first field, your hotel’s domain name (homepage, without https or www),
- In the second field, Webhotelier’s URL that concerns hotel’s booking engine URL
- Click Save
To summarize
In Google Analytics 4 for hotels guide we looked through:
- How to create a new Google Analytics account
- How to make sure that we have admin access to an existing Google Analytics account
- How to move property to a new Google Analytics Account (if needed)
- How to create a new property creation for Google Analytics 4
- How to create a data stream for the Google Analytics 4 property
In the next article, we will create, install, and setup the Google Tag manager so that the Google Analytics 4 to start processing data / events / conversions.
For any further clarifications / questions, you can join Hotelytix Facebook group
