Google Maps Is Hiding Hotels, but Don't Worry Just Yet

If you're using Google Maps to plan your next trip, you may notice that some hotels have suddenly disappeared. Users on Android, iOS and even desktop have reported that hotel pins are missing from the map. The good news is that the hotels haven't actually gone anywhere. This looks like another Google Maps bug, and there are signs that Google is already fixing it.

The problem is quite easy to spot. Search for hotels in an area that normally has dozens or even hundreds of them, and Google Maps may show only one or two red hotel pins. Zooming in or out doesn't seem to help either.

One user said the issue appeared on a OnePlus phone, a Samsung device and a PC. Interestingly, the missing hotels could still appear in the list below the map. It was the pins showing their locations that had vanished. Searches for other places, such as restaurants, also continued to work as normal.

Here's the thing, though. Not everyone is seeing the problem. Some users still have all of their hotel pins, while at least one person who had the bug says the missing results later came back.

That makes this look much more like a server-side problem than a bad Google Maps update on your phone.

This isn't the first Maps bug we've seen lately. Google recently had to deal with another issue that caused live traffic data to disappear for some users. That problem has since been fixed, but now hotel searches are acting up.

To be honest, the timing isn't great. Google has been adding more travel tools to Maps, and its new Ask Maps features can now help users research hotels and even move toward booking one. Having hotel pins disappear at the same time is a little ironic.

Still, I wouldn't worry too much if you're seeing fewer hotels today. The properties themselves haven't been removed from Google, and some users report that the missing pins have already returned.

Until everything is back to normal, I would not rely only on the map when searching for somewhere to stay. Check the results list below it as well, since hotels that don't appear as pins may still be listed there.

And I definitely wouldn't assume that an area has no hotels just because Google Maps shows an empty screen.

Google hasn't explained what caused the problem yet, so we don't know why hotel pins vanished while restaurants and other businesses stayed in place. But with reports covering Android, iOS and desktop, reinstalling the app probably isn't going to do much.

For now, this looks like a strange but temporary Google Maps bug. And if you're planning a trip this week, check twice before deciding that your destination suddenly ran out of hotels.