diff --git a/pandas/io/excel.py b/pandas/io/excel.py
index 2ece91b5dea11..4355d65718765 100644
--- a/pandas/io/excel.py
+++ b/pandas/io/excel.py
@@ -401,7 +401,8 @@ def _conv_value(val):
         val = bool(val)
     elif isinstance(val, Period):
         val = "%s" % val
-
+    elif com.is_list_like(val):
+        val = str(val)
     return val
 
 
diff --git a/pandas/io/tests/test_excel.py b/pandas/io/tests/test_excel.py
index 4f97cef3d46d3..4c1d58de8aa8b 100644
--- a/pandas/io/tests/test_excel.py
+++ b/pandas/io/tests/test_excel.py
@@ -930,6 +930,17 @@ def test_to_excel_float_format(self):
                             index=['A', 'B'], columns=['X', 'Y', 'Z'])
             tm.assert_frame_equal(rs, xp)
 
+    def test_to_excel_list_format(self):
+        _skip_if_no_xlrd()
+
+        df = DataFrame([0.0, ['0.0',0.0]], 
+                columns=['not_list','list'])
+
+        with ensure_clean(self.ext) as filename:
+            df.to_excel(filename, sheetname='TestList')
+            result = read_excel(filename,'TestList')
+            tm.assert_equal(result,df)
+
     def test_to_excel_output_encoding(self):
         _skip_if_no_xlrd()
         ext = self.ext