You think you know your customer. Your booking data might disagree.
Dan Blackman
Every venue has a mental model of their customer. The families who come on weekends. The young professionals who book Friday evenings. The corporate groups who fill Tuesday afternoons. These assumptions feel solid because they’re based on what the team sees on the ground every day.
But observation is selective. You notice the groups that stand out and miss the patterns hiding in the data.
The assumptions that cost you money
Take a venue that runs competitive socialising experiences. The marketing team targets 18-30 year olds because that’s who the social content features. The pricing is structured around what that demographic will pay.
But when you actually look at the booking data, a significant portion of sessions are booked by people in their 40s and 50s. Corporate team events. Parents booking for themselves, not just their children. Couples looking for something different on a Saturday night.
This isn’t a niche segment. It’s a meaningful portion of revenue that’s being served with messaging, pricing, and upsell options designed for someone else entirely.
The segmentation most venues skip
Most booking platforms can tell you how many bookings you had last week. Some can break it down by activity or time slot. But very few help you understand who is booking what, when, in what group configurations, and how their purchasing behaviour differs.
That deeper segmentation reveals actionable patterns. Which customer segments have the highest average transaction value. Which time slots attract groups most likely to add extras. Which activities are underperforming not because of low demand but because they’re priced wrong for the audience that’s actually booking them.
From assumption to strategy
The venues that grow revenue consistently aren’t guessing who their customers are. They’re using booking data to segment, understand, and optimise for each group.
That means pricing that reflects what each segment is willing to pay. Marketing that speaks to the audience actually converting. Upsell offers timed and tailored to the group that’s most likely to say yes.
Your booking system is already collecting this data. The question is whether anyone is reading it.
