Come here often?
It was time for a change of décor at Hilton Hotels. Gone were the days of stuffy keywords and Paisley-patterned property descriptions. Breakfast was still included, though.
We embarked on a complete content overhaul of all Hilton properties to give our users short, scannable content, packed with information.
The brief? Be brief.
The proposal was to redesign property web pages from the ground up. Legacy property pages were packed full of needless description, SEO-bait, and mentions of events that had long since passed. In some cases, websites hadn’t been updated for over a decade… A byproduct of a small content team stretched too thin and a portfolio of over 4,400 locations.
New page layouts, new philosophy, and new content. We wanted short bursts of information-rich material. Snappy headlines, body copy filled with property USPs, clean and accessible user-focused language.
2. Clean sheets
This was no one-person job. The first move was to consult with Hilton’s longstanding content team, the brave souls who venture into the CMS to populate the many thousands of properties with the important stuff like amenities, breakfast rates, and hotel policies.
We had them write some trial copy for a handful of hotels, and then arranged it all in a beautiful, gorgeous, inspiring Google Sheet for ease of reviewing.
Quickly, it became clear that there needed to be a more robust process. This early stage content was heavy on puns, idiomatic, and inconsistent with prioritisation: many lead with brand pillars (free breakfast, in-suite kitchens) etc. before getting to the user-focused USPs (what’s nearby, why someone would come to this hotel).
3. How not to write
🚨 Humility klaxon 🚨 As the first dedicated content designer on the project, I attempted to keep the irreverent nature of our first draft experiment, and thus presented some very ill-judged, pun-laden work to senior leadership.
The structure of my work itself was in keeping with our goals—zippy micro-copy with an editorial focus—but the details were off. For example, Hampton Inn properties are not particularly luxurious, so my use of “indulge” ran the risk of overselling.
And, yes, I regret writing a tortured introduction about bills and pigeons, but in my defence, the property in question was in a town called Pigeon Forge…
Nonetheless, this was a useful lesson; it allowed me to change my perspective and shape up a tighter blueprint for the next stage of the project.
The old adage is true: if you don’t complain, it won’t get fixed. And luckily for me, hotel guests love to complain.
Every Hilton hotel has an associated TripAdvisor page where travellers like to be as blunt as they are gracious about their stay. Of course, I worked with user researchers and I had past insights to draw on, but guest reviews really became gold dust for my work. It’s free user research.
The good, the bad, and the downright surreal, every review offered an interesting PoV on a specific hotel. Keyword summaries also helped me identify the most popular amenities and attractions to write about.
(If you read nothing else on my website, please read the back-to-back toilet seat reviews, which I hope with all my heart were written by one married couple).
4. Psst… It’s free user research
6. Research, write, critique, repeat.
I now knew what we didn’t want in our content: too much irreverence, inaccessible tone of voice, and USPs lagging behind standard brand offerings.
I set to work on writing new property descriptions in earnest, training associate copywriters on the blueprint along the way. My methodology became:
Find out the unique aspects of a property.
Fold these in naturally with brand pillars (free breakfast, on-site gym, etc.)
Research the users (guests), and their demographics, likes and dislikes.
Write content with appropriate TOV and a light touch approach to keywords.
Review with stakeholders, iterate, and move on to the next one.
You can’t reliably write about something that you don’t know. This was my pitch to my manager at the time to convince him that visits to physical properties were necessary for authentic, clear, and genuine insight into the hotels (products).
Actually seeing, touching, and exploring the hotels was an incredibly useful aspect of the information gathering process that couldn’t be gleaned from user research or interviews with property managers.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to visit the Bora Bora property. But I did get a free DoubleTree cookie from the Glasgow site. Score!
5. Sighting the sites
7. Suite work!
Eventually, after an entire year of steadfastly progressing through Hilton’s entire portfolio of properties, the content met the high standards we set for it.
My work achieved the goals of the original scope: information carrying, conversational in tone, USPs highlighted (not only the nearby attractions but the property itself, such as free record players, distinctive interior aesthetic and history in the case of Canopy by Hilton Reykjavik).
The metrics were strong. This overhaul project helped to drive growth in conversion and revenue for 4,400 hotels, achieving an average 21.5% increase in click-through.
Continued A/B testing also proved that new user-focused copy performed far better than older content in meeting traveller’s unmet needs.