Google now allows searches to add an accommodation type during a search for hotels in a given city, which will then bring up homes and apartments listed for temporary rent.

Google currently has around 7,000 vacation rental listings in Paris, Barcelona, Naples, Seville, Berlin, Venice, Rome, Palermo, Bordeaux, Madrid, Cologne, Munich, Dresden, Milan, Frankfurt, Nice, Lisbon, Nuremberg, Reims and Porto. It then allows users to use Priceline's Booking.com platform to book the stays.

Google has described the functionality and offering type to be a "small-scale experiment" but it puts the internet giant firmly in the same $34 billion market as the likes of Airbnb and HomeAway.

"This involves a very limited amount of inventory on a trial basis," a Google spokeswoman said. "We hope to expand to more inventory, inventory types, and partners soon."