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Robert Daniel
Paula and I opened 1849 Backpackers on April 2nd 2010, and we were voted Australia's best hostel in 2016 an 2017..
The hotel is the oldest in WA and when we took it over had been closed down for two years having been pretty much wrecked.
It has been an ongoing labour of love bringing it back, and it's purpose is to provide a safe, happy, nurturing environment for travellers of all ages, from all cultures and backgrounds. Families are attracted to 1849 and are always very welcome!
The hotel is the oldest in WA and when we took it over had been closed down for two years having been pretty much wrecked.
It has been an ongoing labour of love bringing it back, and it's purpose is to provide a safe, happy, nurturing environment for travellers of all ages, from all cultures and backgrounds. Families are attracted to 1849 and are always very welcome!
Leandri: We often get return guests, but we don't target them. We have people from all ages, backgrounds, cultures and countries, even though our core market is international backpackers. We are very family friendly too and not a part place, which attracts a much bigger market and one we are more interested in than the part animals, who would just be a problem.
So we target travellers, and once they have gone only a small percentage come back, although that is a part of our market for sure.
I would identify which countries are currently top of the international visitors who arrive in South Africa and target the top three. Look at the average age of your guests and target that age group plus and minus ten years. Pick the annual salary average too, relevant to your prices, and pick things in their likes such as wildlife, Africa, resorts etc.
I think your place should be getting more overseas guests than South African actually!
A puppeteer, that's awesome! I have done some of this too, and it was so much fun. And those skills are never wasted :)
Joey: I usually narrow it down using the different preferences. Pages they’ve liked, their location etc
Eg if I’m targeting the Taiwanese I’ll got 19-37, in Western Australia but NOT from here, travelling at the moment, likes one of these - travel, hostels, backpacking, Australia, beaches.
I might also translate something simple and personal into Mandarin too.
Joey: most potential guests will do their due diligence by checking the booking engine reviews, TripAdvisor, Goigle and social media. Not necessarily in that order.
People will look for your business on social media to get a real time feel for the place. For our business, most guests are international, so in our Facebook advertising we target specific countries and age groups.
TripAdvisor is still an important area to gain feedback in, and of course in any booking engines you are in, but three years ago we had a Google Guy stay with us who made it very clear the area we needed to improve and keep up to date.
Our Google profile, he said, is our biggest asset. He told us to concentrate on getting Google reviews and ratings, pointing out that when we do that Google will automatically boost our page rating, our profile and the more people comment and rate, the better our page performance will be and the more organic traffic and booking we'll get.
We implemented that strategy straight away and immediately saw big results. Make sure ALL the details are correct on Google, from map position, to directions, phone number and address. Ask people to rate you on Google and watch what happens in just a few weeks.