A question that comes up a lot is: How do you find your Airbnb niche? Your guest avatar, your ideal client. Here’s my thoughts…
As a host, you have two choices:
1. Intentionally creating an experience catered to a specific type of guest.
2. Just renting out a space on Airbnb to whoever books it.
Both options are totally fine. BUT…you’re going to make a lot more money when you choose option 1. So how do you find your niche, your guest avatar?
There’s a few different ways to go about it. One way is to look at your past guests. Read their reviews, and think back on what feedback you received. This may give you some clues as to what type of guests enjoyed their stay the most.
For example…
When I started hosting in Amsterdam in 2012, I was 100% a category #2 host. I just threw my apartment on Airbnb without given any thought as to who my guests would be. I didn’t think about what they would need…How many towels I should provide…Or what type of amenities I needed to buy…
And I soon learned that wasn’t the best way to go about business. My first guests were a group of girls from the States. When they checked in, their first question was: Do you have a hair dryer? Of course my answer was no.
So I ran to the nearest store to get one. A week later I hosted a couple from the UK. They wanted a toaster and a tea pot. I didn’t have those either, coz I didn’t drink tea or eat bread.
Over time I started noticing that there was one particular group of guests that LOVED my apartment more than any other group. And I would NEVER have guessed it…
Groups of two couples, mainly from Canada and the US.
I didn’t even realize couples visited Amsterdam in the first place, I thought they’d go to places like Paris and Rome. Anyway, the main reason this particular group loved my place is because my apartment had a very unusual layout. I had two bedrooms, both equal size.
And they were strangely located at opposite ends of the apartment, with an outside staircase in between.
This mattered for two reasons:
1) My guests didn’t have to fight over who gets the master and who gets the guest bedroom.
2) What happened in bedroom 1, stayed in bedroom 1 (and vise versa).
So I tailored the experience and my marketing to this guest avatar.I changed my title to “Perfect couples getaway” for example. And a lot of other stuff, but I won’t go into detail here as this blog post would turn into a book if I did.
The point is: I started being an “intentional host”. And my revenue went up by about 50%. Another way is to look at who visits your market and choosing a guest avatar to cater to.
For example, are they..
1. People who are attending a sports event
2. People who are visiting family
3. Business travelers
Think about what their specific needs are, and how can you tailor the experience specifically to them? And it doesn’t have to be anything major…
The details matter…A LOT. Now if you haven’t chosen your guest avatar yet, I highly recommend you start thinking about it now.
If you need help, take this free workshop where my business partner Eric and I walk you through the process.
