Can you describe your typical guest?
Sharpen your marketing’s effectiveness by first determining exactly who your target audiences are.
Surprising fact: most hoteliers don’t know who their target market is. It’s all too easy to say you want to market to “everyone” including business travellers, couples, families, golfers, city explorers, foodies, outdoor adventurers… you get the picture.
But, brilliant hotel marketing doesn’t happen by mistake.
If you want to bring in more revenues to your hotel, you’ll have to face the truth: Your property is not everything, to everyone.
Only a few types of people are consistently attracted to your hotel. First, determine who books your property the most. Who are they? How old? What do they like/dislike? Why do they book with you? What’s their personality and lifestyle like?
Outline the characteristics of your top guests and you’ll be better equipped to find others like them.
This is called building guest personas, which entails creating a fictitious guest profile based on information and characteristics of real-life past guests. You can build personas for your typical guests, meeting planners, or travel planners.
A typical guest profile/persona might look like this:
- 35-54 professional couples looking for a romantic “staycation” within one hour drive of their home.
- They have kids, jobs and busy lives.
- They enjoy cocktails in the bar and discovering neighbourhood “hidden gems.”
- They book with you because you provide free bikes and curated neighbourhood maps.
Getting a deep understanding of who your property’s customers really are will help you tailor your marketing messages and create offers that will truly resonate the most with those audiences.
Tambourine is a US-based marketing, booking and distribution service that helps hotel and travel marketers sort it all out. It delivers a 360º program that reduces stress and increases revenue.
