Good hotel content writing is all about details. What good is it to describe your hotel as ‘luxurious’ without mentioning the high-thread count sheets, the silk robes and the top-drawer Champagne that awaits guests in their room?
During our time spent crafting content for hotels, we’ve discovered one key quality that good written content always has: details. Guests browsing your hotel’s website are not looking for vague promises of ‘paradise’, ‘luxury’ and ‘something for everyone’; they are looking for the specifics, the deal-makers and conversely, the deal-breakers. Details are what will convince them to make the purchase.
The fact is, specificity is key when marketing hotels, from identifying your target audience to conducting research to telling your story. Here are just some of the ways in which it pays to be specific in your hotel’s written content.
1. Be specific in your targets
Before you even begin tapping away on that keyboard, it’s imperative to know who you are writing for – that is, who you envision coming to stay at the hotel. That way, you can have your target customer’s best interest in mind from the get go.
Backpackers aren’t after the same things as first-class travellers, just as the interests of stag parties and families will rarely align. Of course, the target customer isn’t always as finely determined as this – it may be quite broad – but the more you know about them in advance, the more you can tweak your writing to cater to them.
2. Be specific in the page titles and blog headlines
The page titles on a hotel website should convey loud and proud what they refer to (terms such as ‘reservations’, ‘blog’ and ‘dining and drinks’ leave little room for confusion). Web users are constantly bombarded with a glut of information; you need to provide them with content they can navigate easily and digest quickly. Keep your page titles and blog headlines catchy and straight to the point.
3. Be specific in your blog focus
A hotel’s blog content should be focused, not general. Tourists in Lima will have little interest in reading about things to do in Rio de Janeiro but they will want to know about interesting local sights and lesser-known activities available in the city. Try focusing on hyper-local knowledge, which will not only be of use to guests during their stay but will also reinforce your hotel’s status as local area experts.
4. Be specific in your story telling
When writing for a hotel blog, it’s your job to transport potential guests into the thick of it and tempt them to your particular corner of the world. Whether you want to bring them into the jungles of Borneo or to a far-flung Madagascar beach, you’ll need to be evocative.
Travel writers rely on words to convey a sense of place. Don’t be ambiguous or opaque. Avoid using sweeping, catch-all terms. Look for concrete details that capture the sense of a destination. It may be a pattern, a texture, a sound, a smell or a feeling.
5. Be specific in your research
No matter how well you know the hotel or the area you are writing about, don’t rely solely on your own knowledge – always bolster this with thorough research. Don’t make assumptions about the amenities or included perks. Nothing damages a hotel’s reputation like pumping up expectations only to fail to deliver. You may get a few bookings by exaggerating, but it will only come back to bite you when the negative TripAdvisor reviews start flooding in.
Mandy Hegarty is a senior editor at World Words, an expert content writing agency that exclusively works within the travel and tourism sector. They combine in-depth sector knowledge with bags of travel writing talent to produce high quality content for travel publications, tourist boards, hotels, travel agents and tour operators all across the globe. She also writes for Hotelspeak.com. You can find out more about World Words (and see examples of their work) at world-words.com, or you can follow them on Twitter @writingtravels.
