Case study: Finding your ideal target market

From Dee Dunworth, Home Sweet Home Mackay

One of the trickiest areas in business for me has been pinning down my perfect ideal client and marketing to them. Being a newbie to the Airbnb arena and, in my typical style, I decided I would jump into the deep end of the pool and start swimming. At the beginning, however, I was barely dog paddling, just keeping my head above water.    

I set my listing quite mindlessly with the thought pattern being that all I needed to do was list my property and, once I did, my guests would just magically book and arrive and so they did and I was very grateful, at first…

Fast forward a couple of months on and I was feeling despondent, frustrated and wondering why I was bothering with this Airbnb thing – and if I would continue. My guests were, at times, quite demanding with their requests, the cleaning was time consuming and I was not happy with the reviews I was receiving. It seemed this Airbnb gig wasn’t quite as easy I thought it should be.

Feeling this frustration, I did some research in the Host area of the Airbnb site and it was almost comforting to read some of the other hosts having similar frustrations. It was the words of a “Super Host” that really caused a lightbulb moment for me, and was the turning point in my Airbnb journey.

They spoke of identifying who your perfect guest was and how everyone’s perfect guest would vary according to their style of hosting. They then said to sit down and write your listing as if you were specifically inviting that person to come and stay at your property. 

Bing! That was it, and I realised the error of my ways. It was my fault that I wasn’t getting the guests to suit my style of hosting, as I hadn’t identified my perfect guest. 

Now I had this breakthrough, I sat down and rewrote my listing in a very specific way to my perfect guest. I actually wrote who I wanted staying with me, letting everyone who read it know who the property was suitable for and set up to cater for. 

Now that I had that clear picture about my perfect guest, my bookings increased and, with it, my income. My guests are happy so they leave great reviews and I am a much happier host. This is a win, win situation for all and all through the power of changing some words.