Attracting high-value travellers to your holiday rental

High-value travellers are a valuable segment both for Booking.com and you, our partners. But what do we mean by ‘high-value travellers’? And what are their needs and expectations? Read on to discover the answers to these questions, as well as what you can do to attract these lucrative and loyal guests to your holiday rental. 

Who are high-value travellers?

We’ve analysed all the characteristics of high-value travellers and identified five distinct traveller profiles:

• App users  
• Occasional leisure 
• Avid weekend 
• Family holiday 
• Solo business 

While these groups might be quite different from each other in some ways, there are a lot of similarities in their behaviour and what makes them stand out from other categories of travellers. According to our research, high-value travellers travel three times more often, spend 60% more and stay 35% longer than other guests, which clearly makes them a valuable group to attract to your holiday rental. 

“What we see is that they travel more often, they spend more, and they stay longer,” says Amy Leavenworth, Director of Product at Booking.com. “But in addition to this we see that they cancel less, they book further in advance, they book higher room types and the majority of them come directly to Booking.com through our app or through other free channels.”

What do high-value travellers want?

Behind this data we’ve also been talking to high-value travellers in order to get to know what they need, and to better understand their expectations and desires. 

“They have fundamental expectations and standards around ease, around the quality of inventory, and the trust in the service that they’re going to get,” says Leavenworth. ”But they also have desires for more personalised experiences, more and better exclusive benefits, more control over how they use those benefits, and maybe above all else, a really strong desire for flexibility.”

Top tip: Think about ways you can deliver a more personalised experience for your guests by offering more flexibility in length of stay, rates and check-in and check-out times.

How can you attract these traveller types to your holiday rental?

Leavenworth shares an anecdote about a solo business traveller who said that he always recognised he’d been given a room upgrade when there was a bowl of jelly beans in the room. “I’m telling you this not because I think it’s important for us to think about how to give our travellers more candy,” she explains, “But more to really underline the opportunity we have here to create surprise and delight, both in big and small ways, for our high-value travellers.”

Here are some ideas of how you can ‘surprise and delight’ the five types of high-value travellers so that your holiday rental stands out.

As Booking.com is the most downloaded OTA app according to third-party research, our partners automatically benefit from easy access to travellers who prefer to book directly via app. To further appeal to app users and increase your bookings, consider offering a Mobile Rate. 

For occasional leisure travellers and avid weekend travellers, time is precious, so anything you can do to increase their convenience and help them make the most of their time away will be greatly appreciated. Consider offering airport transfers to help them save time. You can also make their stay as care-free and relaxing as possible by clearly highlighting any amenities you offer, and providing local recommendations for restaurants, entertainment and leisure activities. 

Features guaranteed to be a hit with travellers looking to book a family holiday include setting up and advertising rates for children and indicating if you offer child-specific facilities such as baby safety gates and high-chairs. Occupancy configuration is also very important for these guests – make sure you show the maximum occupancy for each room, the number of beds and whether you provide cots and extra beds. You could also consider adding family-friendly policies like ‘Children up to and including 2 years old stay for free when using an available cot’. Once you have all the basics covered, welcoming pets to your property and providing games and play equipment can also give your property a significant advantage. 

When it comes to solo business travellers, business features such as a dedicated workspace and high-speed Wi-Fi are must-haves. This group is interested in convenience over cost, and often willing to upgrade their purchase for extra comfort, so you could upsell extra services including airport or train station pick-up, a concierge service, or a tour guide if your guests are extending their stay for some much anticipated leisure time.

Top tip: Your holiday rental may not be appropriate for all of these profiles, but consider what you can do to delight and surprise the groups most likely to book your property.

Get easy access to high-value travellers

Many of these travellers are members of our Genius loyalty programme, with Genius Level 2 and 3 members making up 33% of our holiday rental customers. Becoming a Genius partner on our platform enables you to reach these loyal Genius customers who tend to spend more per booking. 

We’re focusing on investing in these travellers by creating more personalised and targeted experiences and providing dedicated customer service agents to exclusively look after the needs of this segment. By listing with us, you’ll be able to benefit from easy access to these high-value guests.