How long do Google and Bing take to see your new hotel website? Sitemap, IndexNow and indexing requests (2026)

Updated: 10 November 2026

You have launched a new website, moved domain or published a page for a new room, and it does not show up in Google or Bing. That is normal: no search engine promises a timeline. This guide sums up what we could check on 10 November 2026 on the official Google Search Central, Bing Webmaster and indexnow.org pages, and the free steps that are up to you.

The short answer

The essentials:

Google says crawling can take "anywhere from a few days to a few weeks" and that requesting it does not guarantee inclusion "instantly or even at all".
In the URL Inspection help, Google says indexing typically takes a day or so but can take much longer (elsewhere: up to a week or two).
Bing publishes no timeline. IndexNow lets you notify engines the moment something changes, but indexnow.org says submitting a URL does not guarantee immediate indexing.
What you can do: submit a sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, request indexing of key pages in Google, and use IndexNow for Bing and the other participating engines.

Google: sitemap and indexing requests

According to Google Search Central and Search Console Help:

Sitemap: submit it in the Search Console Sitemaps report, through the API or with a "Sitemap:" line in robots.txt. Google treats it as a hint: it does not guarantee it will download or use it.
Limit: 50MB uncompressed or 50,000 URLs per sitemap. A hotel website is far below that.
The lastmod date only counts if it is accurate and reflects a significant change to the page; updating the copyright year is not one.
URL Inspection: for individual URLs, such as the home page or the booking page, click "Request indexing". There is a daily limit (Google does not give the number), and you cannot request it if the live test says the page is not indexable.
Requesting a recrawl several times for the same URL will not get it crawled any faster, according to Google.
Google's Indexing API is only for job postings and livestream videos (JobPosting or BroadcastEvent). It does not work for a hotel website.

Bing Webmaster Tools

According to the official Bing Webmaster blog (June and July 2025):

It is free. Sign up at bing.com/webmasters with a Microsoft, Google or Facebook account.
If your site is already verified in Google Search Console, you can import it and skip verification.
Submit your sitemap in the Sitemaps section or reference it in robots.txt.
Bing asks for lastmod to be each page's real last modification date, not the date the sitemap was generated.
It also has a URL Submission tool. We could not read its current quota in Bing's help (not confirmed).

IndexNow: what it is and how it works

According to indexnow.org and Bing's October 2021 announcement:

It is an open protocol, created by Microsoft Bing and Yandex, to tell search engines that a URL has been added, updated or deleted.
Endpoints listed by indexnow.org: Amazon, Bing, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yandex and Yep. Notifying one is enough: participants share the URLs they receive.
The key: a string of 8 to 128 characters (letters, numbers and dashes) that you store in a text file named {key}.txt at the root of your website, with the key inside.
A 200 response only means the search engine received the notice, not that it will index the page.
It does not replace the sitemap: indexnow.org recommends using both.
We found no price on indexnow.org and manual setup needs no account, but we have no official sentence saying it is free (not confirmed).
What about Google? Neither the Google pages we read nor indexnow.org mention it as a participant. We found no official statement from Google on this (not confirmed). For Google, use Search Console.

If your site runs on WordPress, Wix, Shopify or another platform

What the official sources say:

indexnow.org lists WordPress, Shopify, Wix, GoDaddy, Duda, Joomla!, Drupal and PrestaShop, among others, with built-in or plugin support, and Cloudflare with native integration. Check your platform's documentation.
Wix says in its official guide that IndexNow is automatically enabled to notify Bing when you publish or update, even if you do not connect Bing; the sitemap is sent to Bing once you connect the site through the SEO Assistant.
If an agency runs your website, ask whether IndexNow is active and whether the sitemap is submitted in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

What about AI?

What Microsoft says:

In its June 2025 blog post, Microsoft says Bing powers search and AI experiences including Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Microsoft Start "and AI tools like ChatGPT and Inflection.ai", as well as "the new Copilot experience".
In July 2025 it added that sitemaps help both traditional search and AI-powered experiences like Copilot.
We have not confirmed how ChatGPT uses Bing's index today. Being indexed does not guarantee that an AI will mention or recommend you.

Checklist for your new hotel website

In this order:

Check that the site does not block search engines (robots.txt, a noindex tag left over from the staging site).
Add the site to Google Search Console and submit the sitemap.
Import the site into Bing Webmaster Tools from Search Console and submit the sitemap there too.
Request indexing in Google only for key pages: home, rooms, booking and contact.
Turn on IndexNow if your platform allows it, so every change to prices, seasons or rooms reaches Bing and the other participants.
Check back in a few days or weeks in the Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools reports. If a page is not indexed, find out why before requesting it again.

How iQuota helps

iQuota makes independent properties available to AI assistants with direct booking, payment at the property and 0% commission, with the price and terms each property sets. We cannot guarantee that an AI assistant will recommend you.

Want AI to give your real details, with direct booking and no commission? The first 30 hotels join free until 30 June 2027.

See the Founding Hotels programme

Frequently asked questions

How long does Google take to index my new hotel website?

There is no guaranteed timeline. Google says crawling can take from a few days to a few weeks and indexing typically takes a day or so, but can take much longer.

Does clicking "Request indexing" several times help?

No. Google says requesting it several times for the same URL will not get it crawled faster. There is also a daily limit.

Does Google use IndexNow?

We found no official statement from Google; its pages do not mention it and indexnow.org does not list it as a participant (not confirmed). For Google, use the sitemap and URL Inspection in Search Console.

Do I need IndexNow if I already have a sitemap?

They complement each other. indexnow.org recommends the sitemap for the full inventory and IndexNow to announce recent changes.

Does Bing Webmaster Tools cost money?

No. Microsoft says it is free, and you can import your site from Google Search Console.

Sources

More guides for hotels

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