​Each traveler is different, more so than any category of buyer. Electronics buyers can be trusted to stick to similar types-they want newest, they want best graphics cards, they want cheapest, etc.

Not only is each traveler different, so is each travel journey. It’s near impossible to predict future trips based on past behavior of a single user. Especially if one trip was for business, the next was for a family reunion and the next is for a girls’ weekend. Each has a different goal, budget and selection of people traveling.

Every interaction to a potential guest needs to be personal, and adaptable. This doesn’t have to mean hand-writing every message or recommendation a person receives. It does mean narrowing down your guest personas.

What is a guest persona?

In the B2B world, there’s something called a buyer persona. This is a brief outline of the person who is most likely to buy a product. This could be something like an IT manager at a company between 100-200 employees with an annual revenue of $1 million and that sells to the construction industry.

It’s a very specific type of person, with specific concerns, needs and desires. The information you’d give to this person about your new software would be very different if the company sold to the beauty industry or if the company was smaller.

A guest persona is the same thing. Each traveler is unique and you can create specific information based on their interests and purpose for traveling. While your hotel might be a great place for anyone to stay who’s traveling to Atlanta, you’ll find  a specific type of traveler is a good fit for you.

For example, if you’re close to the airport you might be a good fit for travelers with a layover. This doesn’t mean you’re not a good option for a family on a week-long vacation. However, if your best traveler fits in the category of a layover, you want to provide a personalized journey for that traveler.

You can still target the family. In fact, you’ll want to create a personalized journey through your site and marketing for a family trip if they are also a great fit for your hotel. You’ll create more than one guest persona. This will help the visitors to your site find the information they want and create a more unique journey for them.

The “Netflix” Experience

Online shoppers are becoming accustomed to receiving personalized recommendations. Millions of people use Netlfix, Pandora and Amazon. After a few clicks, they expect to see more information that’s relevant to them and less information that isn’t.

You don’t need to have a software that creates a highly personalized journey for every traveler to your site, although it can help. You can provide a highly personalized interaction with your company based on how they learn about you and other factors.

A Family Travel Experience

Let’s say a family traveler is looking to book a hotel. Statistically, this is usually a woman searching. Mary has a family of 5 and wants to take a trip to Atlanta. She doesn’t know where in the city she wants to stay yet or what dates she wants to go. She’ll need a room that accommodates five people, which can be harder to find.

She might turn to social media to get ideas about when she wants to travel to Atlanta. If you have posts about an upcoming outdoor fair, perfect for families, her first interaction with you is relevant. She clicks on the post and is led to a special offer specific to the week of the fair. It might include two room options--one of which can sleep five -- discounted tickets to the fair and a weekend stay.

You’ve given her inspiration. You’ve given her a relevant experience without providing information she doesn’t care about. Let’s say she’s not ready to book yet. You can guide her to another part of your site she might find relevant and encourage her to sign-up for your email list.

From there, you can provide even more personalized experiences until she’s ready to book.

A Girls’ Weekend

You can provide a similar personalized experience for someone who is planning a girls’ weekend. This same traveler may not find your Instagram or Facebook post relevant about the fair. The post they do find that’s relevant is about a special event going on at your restaurant for a particular weekend. Maybe it includes a happy hour.

When your traveler clicks on the link, it takes her to a specialized page showing a weekend rate for a room, a pre-purchase ticket price for the event and the option to add a champagne breakfast upgrade. Again, a highly personalized experience for your traveler.

You can provide a similar experience if they land on your home page first. This is one of the many ways to optimize your site which I cover in the 10-Day email Challenge: Increase Conversions on Your Travel Industry Website . You can join below for all 10 tips.