Who are Canopy & Stars guests and how can I attract them?

In marketing, as in comedy, it's important to know your audience. We've surveyed our guests and drawn on booking data to build a picture of who our guests are so that you know who you're trying to attract.  

In broad terms, Canopy & Stars guests are affluent couples in search of a closer connection to nature. They travel more, spend more per night and are more likely to stay outside of peak season than the industry average. 

They're high-value, high-intent guests and it's worth understanding what they're looking for, so let's take a look at them.

Our guests are mostly couples, with 86% of guests travelling with a partner. The 25–34-year bracket is our most common age group and only 13% of bookings include children, while 23% include a dog.  

Our guests are mostly city folk looking to get some nature into their lives and our main centres are London, Manchester and Bristol, although there's good representation elsewhere and we see interest in places all over the UK from all bases.

The average household income of our guests is around £82,000, roughly a third above the UK average. Almost a quarter earn over £100,000 and 85% earn over £50,000, so even in tight times, discretionary spend is likely to stay at a reasonable level.  

They spend around £175 a night, against £157 across the wider market and they're nearly twice as likely as the average traveller to pay £400 or more a night.

Our guests travel a lot. They take 3.4 trips a year, against 2.8 for the average traveller and 34% take four or more trips a year, against 21% of the national average.  

This means there's strong potential for repeat business. With that many trips to plan, people are likely to go back to somewhere they already know, trust and love.

The original glamping industry had an air of the unusual about it and leaned into the experience and special occasions markets.  

Our latest survey data shows that nature and escape were the prime drivers for our guests. Most of their trips are "just a break" so making a space relaxing might be more of a lever than champagne hampers and flowers on arrival.

Possibly rising in line with social media's influence, a startling 69% of our guests told us that where they stay says something about who they. They also told us how much they value inspection and being able to trust our places.  

Among our more established, repeat bookers, we saw that 88% will pay more for a place with character, which is all solid confirmation of the value of standing out from the crowd. The more you give guests to talk about, the more they'll talk about you.

With it often being tricky to fill a space outside of summer, it's reassuring to see that our guests are ready to book the months which owners worry most about. Around 83% of them would consider an October break, against 48% of the public, with February at 54% vs 20%, March at 57% vs 32% and November at 50% vs 26%.