Ask HN: How Do You Market A Hotel Comparison Website?

Here are some ideas to consider:

1. When I see a domain name with the keywords you are targeting, I associate it with spam. My advice is to come up with a memorable name that is less than 10 letters. Think along the lines of Kayak, Hipmunk, Expedia, and Orbitz for inspiration.

2. Figure out why your site is different, and make it your focus. Why should I use this site over Kayak? For example, in addition to Kayak, I will check StudentUniverse, a travel aggregator that focuses on students because they offer discounted rates for my age group.

3. Pick a niche to start with. For example, one niche is Americans who want to travel to China. Many Americans do not know about Elong, Qunar, or Ctrip. If you make it easy to discover these sites, this will provide value for your users.

4. Once you figure out why you are different and you have a picked a target demographic, start driving traffic to your site by contacting people through email, forum posts, and partnerships.

Let's stick with the example above about Americans going to China. I would first email Americans living in China that are writing blogs, and ask them to let you do a guest post about your site. Write about how it is hard to book hotels in China when you are new to the country, and why your site could be helpful for their readers. Second, I would respond to posts where people have questions about booking hotels in China (Thorn Tree Travel forum, R/China, R/travel, Quora, Twitter). Do not spam or you will get deleted. Provide valuable information as a subject matter expert. Third, set up strategic parternships. For example, trade links with websites related to travel in China but in different industries, such as businesses focused on day tours like visiting the Great Wall.

5. I think there is a lot of good literature out there for Google Search Adwords, so I will focus on Google Display Ads. Use the feature that allows you to add a list of sites to display your ads on. Make a list of 250 websites you want target that are relevant to your niche, and only displays ads there. Then track which sites are sending you people that are converting.

I hope that helps for now. Feel free to email me to discuss further.

Compare http://compare.cutpricedhotels.com/Place/Bellevue.htm to http://www.hotelscombined.com/Place/Bellevue.htm

I feel like this guy is skimming another OTA...

I would spend some time and find out where your target users are hanging out online. Then, assuming the places they hang out are not competing websites, figure out how to advertise on those places.

How? Perhaps try surveying completely random (non-friend, non-related) people (at a cafe or perhaps a wifi park. Say something like "Hello, I'm John. I'm conducting a survey and I only need __ seconds of your time. <Show them a tablet/laptop/internet device> If you wanted to compare <name of two hotels> what would type in google/bing/duckduckgo/whatever?"

Be sure to record what they search for and look for trends.

2) Ask a follow up question, what site(s) do they go to when they're preparing/researching for a trip.

3) Thank them for their time!

It'll cost you an afternoon or two but you'll definitely gain more insights than looking at google analytics.

Based on the title, I wanted to offer some advice. You're in the UK, even closer to home and more intriguing. You mention some real figures too, great.

But now I look closer, you only seem involved to make a 'quick buck'. You haven't taken long enough to look at Adwords to turn off the 'Display network' ads, and then went on to blame Google and pester their staff rather than RTFM.

The problem you're solving isn't very interesting in itself, which is perhaps why I sense so much urgency to make money, not to solve people's problems. Maybe work on something you actually care about? £50 of free credit to market a whole startup isn't exactly pushing the boat out.

I might have more constructive things to say if you actually care :)

With all due respect, asking coders to weigh-in on marketing may not be your best move. It may be more productive for you to join some Linked-in software/digital marketing groups, then pose the question there. The simple answers to your questions are: don't just depend on ads, but tightly target the ads you do use; use PR to the extent you make key editors, podcasters, bloggers and twitter personalities aware of your site; make a Facebook fan/site page; open a Twitter acct., follow key people in the travel/hospitality industry, then get them involved... it's a lot of work. The alternative, fund marketing and hire a firm to do it for you.

Try advertising on specific travel-related subreddits, and disabling the comment functionality.

Nice site. How did you get all that content? Kind of reminds me of booking.com