Google Maps has long had the ability for users to attach photos to locations like hotels and restaurants. The idea is to give your fellow Maps user an idea of what that particular place looks like before they book it. Now there is an improvement to this around hotels that users will find quite handy. The latest update brings a dedicated photos gallery of rooms at a particular hotel. Now you don’t have to go through all of the photos for a particular property. You can just select the Rooms tab and it will show you pictures of the rooms.
The updated build is version 9.41.1 for those keeping score at home and the OTA update is rolling out now. You should see it hit your device over the course of the next few days.
Once you have the update, tap on a nearby hotel and scroll down to the photos section. Tap the photos and you will see a three tab view of the photos: All, Rooms and By Owner. Tap on the Rooms
Hotel Room Gallery in Google Maps
tab and you will only see photos of rooms at that hotel. This saves you from having to look at the pool or restaurant photos in the hotel if you are only interested in the rooms. A much nicer way of doing things in Google Maps.
In addition to this change for hotels, this update also brings department and service hours in big-box or other types of stores. For example, if you search for a nearby Walgreens or Walmart, you can tap the hours available for that store and it will show you the general store hours as well as the hours for the pharmacy. Now you don’t have to call or go and find out the pharmacy is closed when you arrive although the store is open.
Look for the update to hit your phone sometime over the next few days.
