Host-Guest Dating: The Potential of Improving the Customer Experience Through Host-Guest Psychographic Matching

Abstract

This article argues for the potential use of lifestyle segmentation in order to achieve psychographic matching between hosts and guests in Bed and Breakfast and homestay accommodation. The discussion draws on research conducted in home-hosted accommodation in New Zealand and Scotland that highlighted the central role that the host-guest interaction plays in guest experience and satisfaction. The idea is then developed as to the potential for tourism boards and other promotional bodies to conduct psychographic profiling on homestay hosts so that potential guests might match themselves for potential compatibility with hosts. Whilst points of caution are noted, it is argued that such profiling could increase the possibilities of successful host-guest interaction and thus the quality of experience of both guests and hosts.