Why you need to start thinking like your guest

Okay, everybody, welcome to the Boostly podcast where I like to give hosts just like you the tools, the tactics to training and the confidence to get more bookings. I've got some special little videos to show you. So over about a month ago I interviewed Brian and Katie from Overlooked to Overbooked. And a large part of the reason why you aren't getting bookings is because you aren't trying to appeal to to your ideal guest. And there's so many ways that you are missing out on some things that you don't even realize. Number one, it could be your pictures, it could be the terminology that you use, and it could be, it could be a certain rearrangement of photographs on your listings. So I wanted to take this zoom call that we did with Brian and Katie, part of my coaching group, and I wanted to break it down into little segments and I wanted to post it in the daily podcast because it was so good. It's so good. So please do go and check out Brian and Katie from Overlooked to Overbooked. Go do a Google search for them and really pay attention to what you're going to get access to here in these short little daily segments of the Boostly podcast. I would love to know your feedback when you're listening and watching this. So leave a comment below@markusly.co.uk or at Boostly UK on all of the socials. But for now I'm going to just flip my screen. You're going to see Brian and Katie from Overlooked to Overbook talking about customer avatar photos and all of the above. Thank you so much for tuning in and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow for another episode.

So here's how you would start to think about and take this exercise and think about your listing. So again, host centric versus guest centric. Start thinking about thinking like the guest. I know hosts have a million things in your mind and I understand, of course you do, like insurance and what if somebody trashes my life plays and my calendars and I have double bookings. But occasionally it's good to step out of that and just try to be the guest. And you could go up and down this ladder going from the intangible stuff. So for example in Nice, my feeling of Zen, of tranquility or if you have a place where that's kind of exciting like oh I can't wait to get to somewhere or you there you have an adventure to offer or the location does to the very tangible stuff. So the rooftop view and the balcony and the espresso and the Breakfast setup. And the way these actually relate to the listings is the intangible stuff is easier to describe in the copy. Right. Because it's tough to photograph tranquility. You can, but it's more difficult. So the tangible stuff is what you photograph that becomes your photos. And then with the copy, you sort of amplify that so you have a gorgeous view from the balcony. Say it in the captions. Right? Enjoy this gorgeous view from the balcony and the feeling of Zen or something like that. You translate both of those things from your ladder into stuff in your listing. So then, Brian.

So I want to piggyback on that for one second. There was a study done, and it was of an auto mechanic shop, and they had a tagline that says, you can trust us to do a good job. That was their slogan when they did surveys of people's opinions about the various mechanics in town. People trusted that guy 33% more than everybody else just because he said that like. So it sounds cheesy sometimes to talk about how relaxing or tranquil or amazing a view is, but actually putting it in words does do what Katie says. It amplifies it makes it more front and center, and it makes it more real in the person's mind.

Okay, you can go back to. Yeah, exactly. So all this stuff is our. Our way of going. Getting into your avatar. Getting to your avatar. So we start from the inside out from your listing. What do you have? And then go into your avatar.

So most of you will recognize this from the princess bride. He says, why didn't you list that among our assets in the first place? He's talking about the wheelbarrow because they forgot to mention that they have a wheelbarrow for their attack on the castle. And this is my way of saying you can talk about what your guest avatar is, but you're not doing that in a vacuum. You're doing that as a function of what do you have to offer? What are you starting with? And so this is Manute Bol and Mugsy Bogues. Manute Bol was 7 foot 6. Mugsy Bogues was 5 foot 3. So for centimeters, that's 229 versus 160. But you can imagine if you wanted to play in the NBA, you'd be better off starting off as Manute Bol at 7 foot 6. Right. But Muggsy Bol did make the NBA, so he had to do certain. He had become better at dribbling and better at other aspects of the game. And so we're basically just recognizing the fact that everyone's rental is starting out from a different place. We're not all at the same starting gate.