Thematix Releases Draft Extensions to Schema.org

Thematix has released a draft of extensions to Schema.org that would enable hoteliers to better describe their offerings to search engines.  The extensions are designed to allow descriptions of such things as amenities, services, rooms and room rates — none of which is possible today using the existing taxonomy at Schema.org.

This is important insofar as Thematix has already demonstrated that even the existing markup capabilities can significantly enhance search engine presence for hotels.  The extensions — if widely adopted and honored by search engines — would further enhance the utility of search engines by allowing searchers to, for example, specify “hotels with swimming pools and airport transportation in Niagara”.

Thematix is actively soliciting hotel input.  We need to understand whether the extensions are adequate to hoteliers’ needs and whether and how they might be improved.  If you are a hotelier, please contact us and we will be glad to walk you through this.

The hotel extensions are freely available from Thematix.  We have chosen to adopt the Schema.org style of documenting the extensions — that is what most webmasters and developers working with Schema.org are familiar with.  We have also made available an  OWL representation and – through the efforts of our friend Zack Flannick – a generator tool that automatically creates markup based on your inputs.