Style guide: written tone

The aim of this document is to acquaint you with our language and to keep things consistent. Of course if it makes more sense, sounds better or looks better to do things in a different way, on occasion, it’s okay to break the rules.

Generally the most important things to remember are be informed about you’re topic, humble and down to earth.

In regards to copy for sales and marketing – at the end of the day, we are here to sell hotel rooms. But this should never be done in a typical sales fashion.

If you would like to get a more sound understanding of how to write the way we like, we recommend reading ‘The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century’ by Steve Pinker.

What we are

Funny, intelligent, humble, generous, honest, irreverent.

Our copy is always positive and respectful – we never set out to criticise anyone or thing.

Here are some examples of good copy.

— Date Night Package.

“Booking a hotel room for a date may be a bit presumptuous but what the heck – you only live once. If it all goes wrong you can commiserate with a comfy sleep in after a night of singing Eric Carmen whilst hugging a gin and violet cocktail or three in the bar.

If on the other hand it does work out, you and your date will be booked into one of our favourite Original rooms, be all set up with movie tickets to the Palace Electric Cinema downstairs, so all you need to organise is dinner and drinks… Good luck.”

— Hotel Hotel’s Silly Season offer.

“Please use this code during the holidays if you are in one of the following emergency situations:

• Your in-laws have come to stay
• Your house guest snores like a honk of geese
• You need a holiday to recover from your holiday.”

— Hotel Hotel’s plug for Monster’s Christmas lunch.

“You don’t have to spend the day with your hand up a turkey. Monster kitchen and bar are putting on Christmas lunch.”

What we aren’t

Corporate, contrived, self-important, highbrow.

The name

Understanding a bit about our name goes some way towards understanding a bit about our tone.

The name Hotel Hotel was a way for us to get away from the grandiose.

Many languages have diminutives. These are ways of expressing intimacy and endearment.

In English we tend to borrow words from other countries to create diminutives. Like the use of ‘let’ (borrowed from Middle French) added to the end of a word – ‘piglet’, ‘booklet’.

One thing we do in English is to repeat a first name as a term of endearment. Jo becomes Jo Jo, Ben becomes Ben Ben, Claire becomes Claire Claire. And Hotel became Hotel Hotel.

Hotel Hotel as a person

To inform copy decisions sometimes it helps to picture the person speaking. In Hotel Hotel’s case it’s a smart, funny, well-traveled lady who enjoys a wine at a bar alone, though is always happy to make a new friend. She is a bit of a tomboy. She is confident, straight up and has an intense curiousity about the world and the people that live in it. She is charming and at times self-deprecating. She is also a bit weirded out by all this attention.

Get some perspective

Hotel Hotel is great. We love this place. It does do things beyond being a hotel. But keep it real. This is not the most amazing thing that has ever happened in the history of everything. Hotel Hotel should never be pitched as the ‘best’ or the ‘most luxurious’ (see words we hate).  Avoid the use of superlatives – they aren’t needed.

Words we hate

Hate is a bad word. In fact its one of the words be hate. That being said, here is a list of other words we hate:

• Aplenty
• Boutique
• Chic
• Designer
• Exquisite
• Gourmet
• Five star
• Foodie
• Funky
• Ground breaking
• Hip or hipster
• Haven
• Indulge
• Luxury
• Nom
• Pamper
• Premium
• Quirky
• Sexy (unless as a term of endearment – Monster… You sexy beast.)
• Style
• Uber (i.e., uber cool, uber chic)