How to identify the ideal guest for your holiday let
With so many options available to travellers today, a broad understanding of the target audience may no longer be enough in this sector. At Alehost, we favour more detailed research: the buyer persona.
If you want to start understanding your guests properly and building lasting relationships with them, read on.
What is a buyer persona?
First, do not confuse a buyer persona with a target audience. The terms are similar and can cause confusion, but there are significant differences between the two concepts.
Both aim to establish who your products and/or campaigns should address, but a buyer persona provides a much broader and more detailed understanding of that audience’s profile.
A target audience defines who an offer is aimed at; a reference persona helps clarify that audience’s needs, questions and decisions. Both tools can use data and observation. Their value depends on the quality of the research, not on accumulating personal details.
Researching needs helps you adapt the property, messaging and service. It does not guarantee loyalty or mean everyone in a segment is the same kind of customer. Prioritise needs you can genuinely meet and test your assumptions against enquiries and bookings.
A buyer persona represents a type of customer, based on research and testable assumptions. For accommodation, it might describe the reason for travelling, practical needs, questions before booking and selection criteria.
How can you identify the different buyer personas for your holiday let?
Identifying different buyer personas is an essential part of making the most of your holiday property, so it deserves careful attention and commitment.
Start by gathering information about your different target audiences. Design surveys for your current guests and prospective travellers to understand the impression your holiday apartment creates, what you could improve and what concerns your guests. Observation is also a useful way to gather information.
Once you have collected the data, start interpreting it. Group it into segments and identify the aspects that matter most and appear most often. By the end, you should know:
- What your travellers are looking for.
- What they need.
- What concerns them.
- What you can do to address those concerns.
Summarise the patterns you find and distinguish evidence from assumptions. You can have more than one profile for the same property. Include details that help you make service or communication decisions, without inventing an unnecessary biography.
Ways for owners to identify their holiday property’s buyer personas
Who is your ideal guest when letting your holiday home? The following information can help you start building that picture.
1. Get to know the demographic data
Start with the reason for travelling, dates, length of stay, accommodation needs and search channels. Do not attribute preferences to gender or assume needs based on age or profession. Use only information relevant to improving your offer.
2. Your future buyer persona’s psychographic preferences
What is psychographic data? It is information about a person’s preferences and attitudes towards places they are interested in visiting, destinations they usually travel to or the types of shops they visit to suit their tastes or needs.
3. A business traveller buyer persona
If you host people travelling for work, find out which practical conditions they value: connectivity, workspace, access, an invoice or proximity to a particular location. A profession alone does not establish financial reliability or predict behaviour during a stay.
If we apply these ideas to identifying the buyer persona for a holiday apartment, we could outline different example profiles:
- There might be Pablo, a 39-year-old marketing director at a multinational company, travelling to the capital with his team to launch a new campaign. This profile wants accommodation with good transport links to the offices where they will work, while also allowing him to unwind after a long day.
- Another buyer persona could be Olivia, a 20-year-old university student visiting the city with her partner for a short break. Unlike Pablo, Olivia might be more interested in the apartment’s comfort and place greater value on information about things to do in the city.
These simple, illustrative examples give us an idea of the specific characteristics of potential holiday let guests. We could add relevant information, such as their purchasing preferences or the way they browse online, to develop each profile.
As owners, identifying these guests helps us look for ways to meet their needs and provide a 5-star experience.
Mistakes holiday apartment owners make when defining a buyer persona
A common mistake owners make when identifying a buyer persona is assuming that guests are static individuals, whose tastes and habits do not change.
In fact, a buyer persona’s habits can change. That means understanding your ideal guest requires ongoing research.
Now you know the basics of a buyer persona, it is time to start researching. Tourism is a highly digital sector, and knowing that your future guests are online can help you use observation to develop your research.
Review the questions you receive, reasons for travelling shared voluntarily and feedback about stays. If you use surveys, explain their purpose and avoid asking for unnecessary information. Review the profiles when demand changes.
If you want to identify your buyer persona but do not know where to start, we can help.
At Alehost, we manage your holiday property so you do not have to worry about it.
Why not call us? We will help you with what you need.
A profile that helps you make decisions
| Question | Illustrative example | Possible action |
|---|---|---|
| Why are they travelling? | A work project lasting several days | Describe the desk, connectivity and transport accurately |
| What are they unsure about? | Arrival time and gaining access | Explain the process before booking |
| What do they need to check? | Kitchen equipment | Publish an inventory and genuine photographs |
| What evidence supports this? | Repeated questions in recent enquiries | Check whether questions decrease after improving the listing |
These examples are not real Alehost customer profiles. Review the profile using information from your own property and use it to address needs, not to exclude people based on stereotypes.
