Hospitality Marketing: How to reach the next generation of bookers

Now I know what you're going to say by looking at the title and when I say Gen Z you're instantly going to dismiss it because you think, well these aren't my guests, these aren't the people that are coming to stay with me. But did you know that as of 2022 Gen Z will be 25 years old? And this is why it's really important because Gen Z, Generation Z is going to be your next type of guest. These are going to be the next people that are coming through. Now why is this? Well, number one, why are 40% of Gen Z employees planning on taking a workation in 2022? Well, let's dig into it, let's think about it. 25 year olds now have got that disposable income. 25 year olds now mostly are still living at home. They've got tons of disposable income. And if they're working from home and if they are, you know, not reliant on mortgages, if they're not reliant on bills because of what's happened over the last couple of years and how the whole work dynamic has changed, then they're going to have a bit of extra cash and they are going to be wanting to work cations. Let's dive into what a workation is. Workation is where you go and stay somewhere. Normally it's between one to three hours away from where they're living and they're going to mostly drive to it. They're going to stay somewhere where they can work as well as play. And so this is happening a lot. A trend that has popped up very recently is like mini vacations. It's basically every four to five weeks so you don't suffer from burnout. You go away for four or five, four or five days and this is happening more and more and more and more. So before you dismiss Gen Z and again people think Gen Z is teenagers. It's not anymore. This is the next level now. It's coming up to, to being your future potential guests. So you've got to be thinking, all right, so so many people now are going to be doing this, so many people are going to be traveling. If you're going to be targeting those Monday to Friday or Monday to Sunday or however, if you're going to be targeting people workation, what can you be doing to really appeal to them? Think about that. That first image, that unique selling photo, that first image that they see when they come onto the OTAs or when they land on your website, what can you show to show that you're appealing. And again, you could put workation in the title of your Airbnb listing because then again it shows that you are speaking to them. Ideal for workation.

So you could have, you know, talk.

About super fast WI fi. If you've got your wi Fi speed, go into your properties where you are now. Do a a wi fi speed checker on Airbnb, because that's what they are looking for right now. Upload that, talk about it. Do you have a little work desk put aside so they can have the laptop? Does it have all the things nearby, charging, plug sockets, pens, paper, whatever it may be that will appeal to them? Can you go a step up? Can you have a ring light, a little mini desktop ring light? Because people are going to be doing zoom calls or podcast interviews or webinars or creating content. So many Gen Z now are creating content, have got a YouTube or social media presence. How can you really make it simple for them? And again, what else can you be doing? So takeaways, recommended Uber journeys or taxi journeys or whatever, or places to go, places to hang out, places to check out. What can you be doing to make their life easier? And how can you be put in front of them? So don't dismiss the Gen Z, okay? It's really important and it's something that you should be really paying attention to because this is going to be more and more, more and more important. And again, at the end of the day, they've got the disposable income and this could fill out your Monday to Fridays, the ones that you're really struggling to get rid of. Because again, they're not restricted to just weekends. I know people, good friends of mine that haven't been back into the office environment since March 2020. That's crazy. The working environment, the 9 to 5 is changing. Digital nomads, workcation, whatever you want to talk about is going to become more and more present. All you got to do is look at the founder of Airbnb, Brian Chesky. He's currently staying in nothing but Airbnb. He's moving around, he's working and traveling and he's ahead of a huge organization, whatever you think of it.

So I offer and I throw out.

The question to you like I normally do. What can you be doing to making that your property can stand out more to Gen Z's? Leave a little comment below. What are you doing? Let's have a little brain dump. Brainstorm. If you're listening to the audio version, when it's safe to do so, jump over to the YouTube channel, the Instagram, the Facebook, wherever it may be. Let's start a discussion. Come and join the hospitality community Community Facebook group.

If you haven't done so already and.

You want help with your customer avatar, go and get a copy of the book, the book Direct Playbook bestseller on Amazon, which is amazing. Over a thousand copies have been sold right now, which is great. Please do make sure that you come and check out that boostly.co.uk for anything else. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode, but in the meantime, let's stay proactive. Don't be reactive. Let's go and get some direct bookings.

Thank you so much for checking out today's podcast episode. Now before you head and go anywhere else, before you click to the next episode, please before you do that, do me one big favor and go check out boostly.co.uk trust IPRAC are the sponsors of all of the Boostly content and the reason why I work with them and the reason why we spread the message of IPRAC is that when a host or a company is looking to get more into direct bookings, the main question they have is around trust. As in will a guest trust that I am a true and real business? Will IPRAC take care of all of that? And they've got a special offer that is only available to Boostly people. But to do that you need to go to Boostly, which is b o o s tly.co.uk forward/trust. You can find out all the information there. You can book in a demo, book in a call and then you will get your super special offer that is only available to Boostly peoples. Thank you again for tuning in. Do go check out iprac. We'll be back again very shortly with another podcast episode, but until then we'll see you all very soon.

Take care.