With Expedia’s recent acquisition of Orbitz and Travelocity — not to mention Amazon, Google, Groupon and other Internet giants stepping into OTA waters — there is more information available to online shoppers looking for travel deals than ever before. Furthermore, a new dynamic of competitive pressure has been added to the online market in recent years by Airbnb, with over 11 million travelers using its platform to book stays since its 2007 launch.
What this means for hotels is that it is more important than ever to evaluate and optimize how they communicate their deals online if they want to convert browsers into clicks into more bookings. Consumers decide whether to view an offer within seconds and compare prices instantaneously, so what is the formula for grabbing their attention in an online landscape oversaturated with information on hotel deals?
For a crash course in advertising hotel offers, look no further than Travelzoo, a company that’s been doing it right for nearly 15 years. The company has seen recent stock prices climb steadily under the radar of the Expedia conglomeration as one of the few remaining independent but publicly traded OTAs.
A large part of of Travelzoo’s niche is founded on its classic “Top 20” — a weekly list of hotel deals that is still hand-picked by human beings, not a search-engine algorithm. In the 15 years since its first distribution in 2000 to approximately 1 million subscribers, the company has grown to a captive newsletter audience size of 27 million. Travelzoo has raked in roughly US$150 million in ad dollars annually from hotels jockeying to be in the newsletter’s coveted list of deals.
Each offer in Travelzoo’s Top 20 fits on a single line — but don’t be fooled by the minimal word count. Each deal is written in exacting, formulaic fashion that capitalizes on the online shopper’s attention span, the key elements travelers are looking for and competitive differentiators that not only get clicks but also will ultimately sell that deal.
We recently analyzed Travelzoo’s Top 20 from the week of March 11 to demonstrate a few of the rules of writing these offer headlines. Whether writing a Google search ad, advertising an offer on social media or other proprietary channels, or taking the plunge to get on the Top 20 itself — what follows are the key things every hotel text ad in 2015 must contain to be effective:
Here’s a listing from The South Coast Winery Resort and Spa.
There are a few key things going on here. First, there is an entry price point. It may not be the price of the most expensive room, but it’s the lowest possible price point for booking a stay. Remember, first hotels must drive the consumer to an interior deal page, so always lead with the best (read: cheapest) foot.
Second, there’s an identifier: Southern California. It sounds simple, but in the limited text space of a promoted tweet, search ad or Top 20 listing, unless hotels give browsers context as to where this deal is located, they will move on to a deal that instantly connects with their knowledge base and psyche. Note that for this listing, the writers went with the universally known location identifier of “Southern California” rather than the specific city the villa is in (Temecula, California), which might not be known to a wide audience.
Next, there is a qualifier: “4-star villa escape.” The important thing here is the qualifier “4-star.” The customer needs to know why US$199 is a great deal for this hotel. The six characters it takes to say “4-star” instantly communicates prestige and tells shoppers what sort of getaway a stay at this villa would be like in terms of luxury.
Last, there is a hook: why do I need to click-on and purchase this deal now? What makes it better than the other deals on this page and better than what I might find on another OTA site or at another hotel? The hook here is the last eight characters: “Reg. $444.” If this stay were originally US$200, the deal of US$199 would be no deal at all. However, a deal of US$199 off of a regularly priced stay of US$444 is incredible — that’s a savings of more than 50%.
Now, in less than a sentence, hotels fully have their audience’s attention and curiosity — and, with luck, their click.
Here are a couple other examples from the same Top 20 that follow the same formula.
This construction of entry price, identifier, qualifier and hook is a deadly combination and allows a busy, online consumer to process hotel-deal information in a way that is both efficient and compelling. The interior deal pages for these offers contain photos, reviews and trip highlights, but unless hotels are able to effectively produce clicks through that first line of text, all the stunning photos and descriptions of first-class amenities on landing pages will just be wasted space.
In 2015, hotel advertisers face more competition to attract online consumers to their deals and a more limited human attention span than ever before, and they must work within these confines. By using this simple and effective way of organizing deal information, hotels will have the best chance of drawing in online consumers and producing bookings.
It’s no surprise that a few days after its release, the deal for the Southern California villa escape analyzed above was completely sold out.
Abi Mandelbaum is co-founder and chief executive officer of YouVisit, a technology company that develops virtual tours and virtual reality content for a variety industries.