3 Lessons from My (Initial) Failure with Writing Hotel Copy

As easy as writing sales copy might seem – let’s face it, it’s what we do every day and we are supposed to know how to get it right (within reason) – I recently got reminded that things are not always that easy for us, the craftsmen of words.

Up until early last year I hadn’t written a single word for a hotel. Sure, I had some knowledge about hotel sales copy but it came mostly from studying hotel websites while booking our holidays and playing smart alec, thinking I could write it better.

Real life likes to play tricks on us and my writing skills and confidence were put to the test when I landed a job as an SEO and main writer for a large chain of serviced apartments in the UK.

There are certain things I learned about the industry that helped me overcome the initial bump on the road. Today I want to share them with you.

No warm ups. Period!

I have a tendency to use warm ups in my posts. I am sure you noticed that in this article as well. In many cases, warm ups work like a charm. However, when it comes to holiday makers, your readers have hardly any time at all to go through your copy and might not even get past the warm up.

Insight – write for people who:

- Have a very limited time to do their research.
- Expect to see nothing more than a list of things that are included in their booking.
- Need to remember your copy and offer past the research stage to come back and buy.

Friendly Tone is a Way to Go

Nothing works worse when you are trying to sell a hotel than a dry, professional tone. The tone of your copy has to reflect the cushy atmosphere of the holiday accommodation that you are selling. A friendly tone is the way to go in this case. However, the difficulty is that most people look for nothing more than a list of things they get with their booking plus some location info and a price.

Keywords Do Not Always Work The Way You’d Expect Them To

Writing a copy for a hotel is a constant battle between satisfying both research and sales stages of the process. On one end, your copy needs to inspire your readers while they still check out many different hotels so that they remember yours and will come back to make a booking. On the other hand, you want them to book straight away and must write copy to inspire them to do that too.

The best way to achieve success with both is by using the right keywords. However, these work in a quite specific way in the hotel industry.

Insight – hotel keywords characteristics:

- Holiday makers usually use plural keywords during their research.
- Short tail keywords are mainly used for research and have a low conversion rate.
- You will get better conversion rates on long tail, low traffic keywords.

It was a steep learning curve, but I made it through and I am now enjoying  great success at work. I hope these tips will help you do the same.

Pawel Grabowski works as an SEO Specialist and web content writer for a leading serviced apartments provider in the UK. He is also the author of “The Smart Business Guide to Winning New Work“, the best beginners’ guide to selling and brining new clients in. Connect with Pawel on Google+.

Image: Bernard Gagnon via Wikimedia Commons

Tagged as: copywriting, writing, writing copy, writing for hotels

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