Google is testing a new feature within Google Maps: displaying specific hotel prices. The feature has been turned on for “a small portion of users.”

The new feature is very straightforward: whenever you search for hotels in a specific region, you will have the ability to check the prices of hotels that show up in search results, based on the date and the number of nights you are staying. The data is based on advertised prices from sponsored results — the prices are essentially ads, albeit useful ones.

Google made it clear that it is not changing its ranking system for hotels; instead, this is an experiment to test a new form of advertising that might be useful to the user. From the screenshot Google provided, the integration seems simple and useful to both Google Maps users and its millions of advertisers. It could roll out to more users soon if testing goes well.

What do you think; is this a feature that you would use? Let us know in the comments.