Identify your Ideal Guest to turn renters into raving fans.
“He had this stupid hair and he never stopped with the jokes. One night, we were all playing pool, and this guy George was there and he was flirty. But, unlike all my girlfriends, I didn’t think he was cute at all. I thought he was annoying. I only had eyes for Andy.”
“Ohhh, Aaanndy.” She laughs. “Sooo handsome.”
Those who have heard this one before dance in our seats in anticipation of the punchline.
“Lucky me, I got Andy’s attention. And after 8 years of ups and downs, I became Mrs. Martinez. But I could have been Mrs. Clooney! I could be living at Lake Como right now!”
I think about Mary’s story when I start working with new clients. They usually think their vacation rental has to be George Clooney, two-time winner of People magazine’s sexiest man alive, when, really, it needs to be Andy, the only guy in the room for Mary. They need to figure out who their Mary is and what she wants
Here’s how to define the Ideal Guest for your vacation rental.
If you spend any time in the marketing world, you’re bound to hear about the ICA, or Ideal Customer Avatar. In our world, this person is our Ideal Guest.
Your Ideal Guest is your best buyer, or in vacation rental terms, your best booker.
If you’ve already been in business for a while, you know this person. She’s the guest who loves your place, pays your rates without protest, respects you and your property, and sends her friends your way.
If you haven’t been in business long, or if you haven’t even started, think about who this person might be. Maybe it’s someone like you, maybe not, but it definitely helps if you can relate to them on some level. Who will love your place? Who’s going to be doing the research and booking?
Now, write their bio to get clear on who they are.
You might be tempted to skip this exercise, but I urge you not to. The more specific you can get, the more appealing your property and listings will be. We walk all of our clients through this exercise before beginning any project.
Get out some paper or open a Google Doc, and use the prompts below to write about your ideal guest.
- Does this person identify as a man or a woman, or non-binary?
- How old are they?
- What do they do for a living?
- Do they travel with friends or family?
- Are they married/partnered? If so, what does their spouse do for a living?
- Do they have kids? How old are the kids?
- Do they drive or fly to your destination?
- Do they have pets? Do they travel with them?
- Where do they live?
- Do they stay in vacation rentals often?
- How often do they travel?
- When they stay at your place, what kind of trip is it? An annual thing or once in a lifetime? One of several trips a year or their main vacation?
- Are they traveling for work?
- What is their home like? Big or small? Urban, suburban, rural? Old or new?
- What’s their household income?
After you’ve answered all these questions, you should be getting a picture of this person in your mind. Now get more specific. Find a picture that represents the person you’ve described. Give them a name and a life story. This will help you feel like you really know this person.
The point of this exercise is not to say that you will only rent to a 51-year old blonde named Sue. The point is not to exclude anyone, but to help you visualize exactly who you are speaking to when you design and decorate your vacation rental, write ads for listing sites, copy for your website, or blog posts. When you evaluate a new logo or website design, you will be looking at it through your IG’s eyes, rather than trying to imagine what will appeal to the largest number of people.
You might be afraid of getting too specific for fear of alienating people who are not your Ideal Guest. Don’t be. Design and messaging that is meant to appeal to everyone becomes vague and uninteresting. It might look or sound “nice” or “fine,” but it’s unlikely to produce raving fans.
Now that you know who she is, figure out what your vacation rental Ideal Guest wants.
Okay, this might get a little woo-woo for some of you, but I promise, it’s important. People buy based on emotions, on how they think that thing is going to make them feel whether it’s a new sweater or a trip to Hawaii.
After you’ve written your Ideal Guest’s bio, start doing some thinking, or better yet, journaling, about what they really want. Try to go deep here. One way to do this is to keep asking “Why?” until you get to an emotional truth.
Example:
What does my Ideal Guest want?
A house in your area with enough room for her family and a pool.
Why?
It’s been a long, dreary winter and they need a break. Everyone in the family is getting stressed out and crabby, and they need something to look forward to. By the time their vacation rolls around the kids will be in desperate need of sunshine and she will need time to relax. A pool is a perfect way to keep them busy and happy all day while she keeps an eye on them from a lounge chair.
Why?
She wants the kids to be happy but she needs a break, too.
Why?
If the kids aren’t happy, she feels like a bad mom. If the pool is too deep, or too cold, the kids won’t want to swim, and she’ll have to keep them entertained the whole time. And if she doesn’t get to relax, she’s going to BE a bad mom. If they all go home stressed it’s going to be a waste of their precious vacation time and her husband won’t trust her to pick their next vacation.
How identifying your Ideal Guest gets your vacation rental booked.
Say your listing describes a spacious home with a sparkling pool. What is that really saying? Pools are sparking by nature, unless they’re dirty, and spacious compared to what? Your IG might have your place saved on her list but it doesn’t stand out amongst your competitors, especially if your photos are also similar to theirs.
Before she books the house with the sparking pool, your Ideal Guest has to think about all of the things she needs to ask about the pool to avoid having a disappointing experience. Then she has to send an inquiry to ask those questions and hope that someone will answer them. And that’s just the pool.
Now imagine she goes to your listing and not only does she love the photos, you’ve answered her questions before she’s even thought of them, and described a few things she didn’t know she wanted until now.
“The heated, graduated-depth pool is perfect for swimmers of all ages and abilities, and floaties and pool toys are included”
Now she can imagine her kids playing in that pool and having a great time.
That’s just one sentence. Imagine if your entire listing speaks that directly to her, and the photos show that the home is not only beautiful, it could have been designed just for her family.
When you get to the heart of what your Ideal Guest most wants, your vacation rental moves from one of a couple of properties on their wish list to the one that they must book now before someone else gets it. When you follow that up with communication that makes them feel seen and a vacation rental that lives up to or exceeds their expectations, you’ll have a raving fan for the life of your business.
Want help designing a vacation rental that will help turn your guests into raving fans? Book a free 20 minute consultation to discuss how we can help you take your vacation rental from good to great.
