I sent my first 3,000 cold emails to hotels and got only 1 positive reply, and that one didn't convert.
6 weeks later: 70% open rate. 4%+ positive reply rate.
Week 1–2 was brutal
- 2,000 emails sent
- 45% deliverability
- 10 replies
- 1 positive
Less than 1% reply rate. Nearly half the emails weren't even landing.
Most people would've blamed the offer. I blamed the infrastructure. So I fixed it.
New sending domains. Proper warmup. Inbox rotation. Hospitality-specific copy rewritten from scratch: no templates, no fluff.
I also built my own Enrichment + Analysis + Personalisation agent (60% of what Clay does).
Week 3–4 results
- ✅ 1,600 emails sent
- ✅ 83% deliverability ↑
- ✅ 22 replies ↑
- ✅ 4 positive replies ↑
On cold email. In hospitality.
What actually moved the needle
- Deliverability before copy. You can't convert emails that never land. I spent week 1 fixing the foundation, not the funnel.
- Segment by inbox type. Generic addresses (info@, contact@) replied 2–2.5x more than role-specific hospitality addresses. Counter-intuitive, but the data doesn't lie.
- Specificity > personalization. I stopped faking personalization and started leading with a real observation about their Google Business Profile or review sentiment. Many times it was manual too.
- Volume is a lagging lever. We sent fewer emails in weeks 3–4 and got more replies. Less spray. More precision.
If you're running outreach for local businesses or brands and your open rates are below 40%, something's broken before the copy.
Reach out and I'll audit your cold campaign setup and send you the GTM Hack Sheet I prepared to turn this around. No cost, no pitch. Just the playbook.