Your Google Business Profile might be the first thing a 2SLGBTQIA+ traveller sees before they decide to book in Banff or Canmore. It takes less than 15 minutes to update, and it could be the reason they choose your business over the one next door. Most Bow Valley businesses have not touched these settings. This guide walks you through every one of them.

For hotels, tour operators, cafes, outfitters, and retail shops across the Bow Valley, a well-optimised Google Business Profile does two things at once. It signals to 2SLGBTQIA+ travellers that they are genuinely welcome, and it improves your visibility in local search results when people search for inclusive businesses in the Canadian Rockies. Neither outcome requires a marketing budget. It requires about 15 minutes and some honest thinking about what your business actually offers.

Key Term: Google Business Profile

What it is: A Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a free listing that controls how your business appears on Google Search and Google Maps. It includes your name, hours, photos, description, customer reviews, and a set of attributes that describe your business in more specific terms.

Why it matters for inclusive tourism: Google has focused on adding profile attributes because a business listing is the single most important factor driving a business’s visibility when people search for places to visit locally. When a 2SLGBTQIA+ traveller searches “LGBTQ-friendly places near Canmore” or “inclusive hotels Banff,” your attributes are what determine whether your business appears in those results.
‘Edit your Business Profile’ Support Page

Why This Matters for Bow Valley Businesses Specifically

Mountain tourism communities like Banff and Canmore operate in a high-competition, seasonal environment. Every discoverability advantage matters. A 2SLGBTQIA+ traveller planning a trip to the Rockies is likely doing significant research before they arrive. They are looking for signals that they will be safe and comfortable. Your Google Business Profile is often the first place they look.

Google introduced the ability to mark a business as “LGBTQ-friendly” and as a “Transgender Safe Space” specifically to help people find spaces of belonging more easily, recognising that finding those spaces has often been hard for 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. For a small, independent business in Banff or Canmore, having these attributes visible on Maps and Search communicates something real before a guest ever walks through your door.

The good news is that the barrier to entry here is low. These tools are free, they are available to any verified business, and they take very little time to implement.

Step One: Make Sure Your Profile is Verified

Before you can add inclusive attributes or update your description, your Google Business Profile needs to be verified. Verification confirms that you are the actual owner or manager of the business.

If your profile is already verified, you can skip ahead. If you are not sure, search for your business name on Google. If a panel appears on the right side of the screen with your business details, look for a prompt that says “Own this business?” or “Claim this business.” Follow those prompts and complete the verification process. Google typically verifies businesses via a postcard sent to your business address, a phone call, or increasingly through video verification.

Google only allows verified owners to add identity and inclusion attributes to their profiles. Verification is foundation to everything else in this guide.

Step Two: Add Your Inclusive Attributes

This is the most important update you will make. Attributes are short labels that appear directly on your Google listing and tell searchers specific things about your business. There are three inclusion-relevant attributes available to most Bow Valley businesses.

How to access your attributes:

1. Sign in to your Google account and go to your Business Profile

2. Select “Edit profile” and then “Business information”

3. Navigate to the “More” tab near the top

4. Select the attribute category you want to update

5. Toggle the relevant attributes and select “Save”

6. Changes should appear on your listing within approximately three business days.

The three attributes to look for:

“LGBTQ-friendly” | This is your primary signal to 2SLGBTQIA+ travellers. Adding this attribute is a key step for businesses who want to let the 2SLGBTQIA+ community know they are always welcome. It is visible on both Google Search and Google Maps. Any business that has completed inclusion training, reviewed its internal policies, and is genuinely prepared to welcome 2SLGBTQIA+ guests should add this.

“Transgender Safe Space” | This attribute goes further and signals a specific commitment to transgender and gender-diverse guests. It is separate from the LGBTQ-friendly attribute and should be added intentionally.

Ask yourself: has your team had a conversation about how to respectfully address transgender guests? Do you have gender-neutral washroom facilities or clear signage? Are you prepared for a guest who may use a name or pronoun that differs from their ID? If the answer to these questions is yes, add this attribute. If not, prioritise closing those gaps before activating it.

“Gender-neutral restroom” | Google’s attributes list includes an option for a business to indicate if they provide a gender-neutral restroom. If your business has a gender-neutral washroom option, mark it. This is one of the most searched-for accessibility features among transgender and non-binary travellers planning trips to mountain communities.

A note on the “LGBTQ+-owned” attribute: Google has also added an “LGBTQ+-owned” attribute designed to highlight businesses owned by members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, similar to how Black-owned and Latino-owned attributes work. This attribute is distinct from LGBTQ-friendly and is only appropriate for businesses that are actually 2SLGBTQIA+-owned. Do not add it if that is not the case.

A note on attribute availability: Google’s available attributes vary by business category. Hotels, restaurants, bars, and retail businesses tend to have access to the broadest range of attributes. If you cannot find a specific attribute in your list, it may not be available for your business type. Document what is available and apply everything that applies.

Step Three: Write an Inclusive Business Description

Google gives you 750 characters for your business description. Only the first 250 characters show directly on your profile. The rest is revealed when someone clicks “More.” This means your first two to three sentences carry significant weight. Use them to communicate your most important identity signals, including your commitment to inclusion. Your description should not open with a generic welcome statement. It should be specific enough to be believable.

What not to write:

“We welcome all guests and are proud to be an inclusive business in the Canadian Rockies.”

This is vague. It carries no operational information and no accountability. It sounds like something a business adds because they feel they should, not because they have done any meaningful internal work.

What to write instead:

“[Business name] is a Rainbow Registered outfitter serving Banff and the Bow Valley. Our team has completed 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion training, and we are committed to making every guest feel genuinely at home in the Rockies, whether you are adventuring solo, with a partner, or with family.”

This version is specific. It names an accreditation standard, mentions training, and uses inclusive language about different types of guests without being performative about it.

Use the first sentence of your description to clearly communicate what your business does. This line often appears as a preview in search results. If your commitment to inclusion is a genuine part of your identity as a business, it belongs in that first sentence.

Focus on effective keywords within the first 250 characters to maximise search visibility, while maintaining natural language. For a Bow Valley business, that might mean naturally including words like “Banff,” “Canmore,” “inclusive,” “welcoming,” and your business type, without forcing them.

Step Four: Audit and Update Your Photos

Your photos are the second thing most people look at on a Google Business Profile. They are also one of the most common places where inclusion signals break down entirely.

Take 10 minutes to review every photo currently on your profile. Ask these questions:

Do any of the photos show guests or customers?
If yes, do those guests represent a range of people, or do they show a narrow demographic?

Are there any images that imply your business caters to a specific type of couple or family structure?

Are there photos of your physical space?
Do they show any inclusive signage, such as a Pride Network badge, or a gender-neutral washroom sign?

You do not need to stage a photoshoot. What you are looking for is whether your existing photos accidentally narrow who feels welcome before they even read your description.

Alt text on images is a ranking signal for image search. Many local customers find businesses through Google Images. When you add new photos to your profile, write descriptive alt text that reflects the diversity of your guests and the nature of your space. A photo described as “two guests hiking a trail near Canmore” is more inclusive and more searchable than one labelled “couple hiking.”

Add at least one photo of any inclusive signage on your premises. A Rainbow Registered badge, a Bow Valley Pride Network sticker, or a gender-neutral washroom sign in frame signals something real and tangible to a prospective guest doing research.

Step Five: Update Your Business Description for Searchability

Beyond the main description field, Google also pulls information from your services, posts, and Q&A section. Each of these is an opportunity to reinforce your inclusive positioning in a way that is honest and searchable.

Google Posts: Use the Posts feature to publish updates throughout the year that reflect your inclusive values. This does not mean posting exclusively about 2SLGBTQIA+ topics. It means using inclusive language consistently in every post, representing diverse guests in the photos you choose, and occasionally sharing updates that are specifically relevant to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, such as events the Bow Valley Pride Network is running, inclusive trail guides, or accreditation milestones your business has achieved.

Q&A Section: The Questions and Answers section on your profile is searchable. You can pre-populate it with questions and answers yourself. Consider adding questions like:

“Is this business welcoming to 2SLGBTQIA+ guests?” with a detailed, specific answer that references your training, your attributes, and your policies.

“Are there gender-neutral washroom facilities available?” with a direct yes or no and any relevant details.

These pre-seeded answers appear when guests search your profile and reduce friction for people who want reassurance before they book.

Services Section: If your business offers services, list them using inclusive language. “Private tours for solo travellers, couples, and groups of all kinds” reads differently than language that assumes a couple is always a man and a woman.

Step Six: Manage Reviews with Inclusion in Mind

Customer reviews are ranking factors that can help improve your online visibility when people are looking for inclusive places. A guest who writes “I felt genuinely welcome as a queer traveller” or tags your business as LGBTQ-friendly in a review is doing meaningful marketing on your behalf.

Encourage reviews by making the ask specific. After a positive interaction, let guests know that their feedback helps other travellers like them find your business. A satisfied 2SLGBTQIA+ guest who knows their review will help another queer traveller find your Banff hotel or Canmore cafe is often happy to take a moment to leave one.

Respond to every review, including critical ones. How you respond to a negative review tells prospective guests more about your business than the review itself. If a guest raises a concern about feeling unwelcome, address it directly, take accountability, and explain what you are doing to improve. Defensiveness in a review response does significant damage. Calm, accountable engagement builds trust.

Monitoring your reviews is also a practical way to track how well your business is living up to its promise to be welcoming. If guests are consistently noting something specific, whether positive or negative, that is useful operational information.

Step Seven: Check Consistency Across All Platforms

Your Google Business Profile does not exist in isolation. Google’s algorithm looks for trust signals that confirm your business is legitimate and located where you say it is. Inconsistencies across platforms, including small differences in business name, address format, or category, can weaken your local SEO performance.

As you update your Google Business Profile for inclusive tourism, take a parallel pass at your other profiles. Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Expedia, and any tourism directories you appear in should carry consistent messaging, consistent attributes where available, and consistent inclusive language. A guest who finds your Google profile, sees an LGBTQ-friendly attribute, and then clicks through to your Booking.com listing where none of that language appears will reasonably wonder whether the signal was genuine.

The goal is coherence. Your digital presence should feel like one business telling one honest story across every platform.

A Quick Reference Checklist

Use this to confirm you have covered every update before you consider your profile complete.

∙ Google Business Profile is verified

∙ “LGBTQ-friendly” attribute is active

∙ “Transgender Safe Space” attribute is active (if your business is operationally ready)

∙ “Gender-neutral restroom” attribute is active (if applicable)

∙ “LGBTQ+-owned” attribute is active (only if your business is 2SLGBTQIA+-owned)

∙ Business description opens with a specific, honest inclusion signal within the first 250 characters

∙ Photos reviewed for representation; new images added where needed

∙ Alt text on images is descriptive and inclusive

∙ Q&A section pre-populated with relevant inclusion questions and direct answers

∙ Google Posts plan includes consistent, year-round inclusive language

∙ Reviews are being actively managed and responded to

∙ Messaging is consistent with Booking.com, TripAdvisor, and other listed platforms

One Important Reminder for Bow Valley Businesses

Updating your Google Business Profile is a meaningful step. It is not the final step. A 2SLGBTQIA+ traveller who finds your Banff restaurant or Canmore accommodation through an LGBTQ-friendly attribute and books a stay is about to find out whether that attribute was earned.

Business owners who have added inclusive attributes describe the value simply: guests feel welcome without needing to second-guess whether they will be treated equally. That experience does not come from a profile setting. It comes from a team that has been trained, a space that has been thought through, and an owner or manager who has made a genuine commitment.

The Bow Valley Pride Network works directly with businesses in Banff, Canmore, and across the Bow Valley to build that internal readiness. Before your updated profile goes live, make sure your team is prepared to deliver on what it promises.

Book a DEI workshop with the Bow Valley Pride Network. Our sessions are built specifically for small tourism businesses in mountain communities, and they give your staff practical, immediate tools for creating genuinely welcoming guest experiences.

Book a Workshop with the Bow Valley Pride Network

DEI Guides & Toolkits

What Privilege Actually Means, And Why It Matters for Bow Valley Tourism Businesses