Google Places works for all users automatically — no Google account connection required. It uses a server-side API key, not your personal Google credentials.
What You Can Do
Search for Businesses
Ask about any type of business or location:- “Find Italian restaurants near downtown Denver”
- “Show me plumbers in Austin, TX”
- “What coffee shops are near the office?”
- “Find FedEx locations in Chicago that are open now”
- “Search for coworking spaces in San Francisco”
Get Place Details
After a search, ask for more information about a specific result:- “Tell me more about that first restaurant”
- “What are the reviews for Mario’s Italian Kitchen?”
- “What are their hours?”
- “Do they have a website?”
Nearby Search
Find places near a specific location:- “What restaurants are within walking distance of the convention center?”
- “Find gas stations near that hotel”
- “Show me parks within 2 miles of the office”
Location Suggestions
Get autocomplete suggestions as you describe a place:- “I’m looking for a place called Sunrise…” — returns matching suggestions
- Useful when you know a partial name or want to disambiguate similar locations
Information Available
For each place, RelayHub can retrieve:| Data | Description |
|---|---|
| Name & Address | Full formatted address |
| Phone | National and international phone numbers |
| Rating | Star rating and total number of reviews |
| Hours | Current and regular opening hours |
| Website | Business website URL |
| Google Maps Link | Direct link to the place on Google Maps |
| Business Status | Whether the business is open, closed, or temporarily closed |
| Price Level | Relative price indicator (where available) |
| Reviews | Customer reviews (via place details) |
| Place Types | Categories like restaurant, cafe, store, etc. |
Example Conversations
Business research:“I need to find commercial printers in the Dallas area that have good ratings” The AI searches for printers in Dallas and presents results with ratings, addresses, and contact info in a clean table format.Local recommendations:
“What are the best-rated Thai restaurants within 5 miles of downtown Portland?” Results are sorted by rating with addresses, phone numbers, and hours.Multi-step workflow:
“Find the top 5 coffee shops near our office and put them in a Google Sheet with their name, address, rating, and phone number” The AI searches for coffee shops, then creates a Google Sheet with the results (requires Google Workspace connection for the sheet creation).
Limitations
- Maximum 20 results per search
- Place details (reviews, photos) require a follow-up details request using the place ID from search results
- Results depend on Google’s Places API coverage for the area
- Price level data is not available for all businesses