We envisioned a certain type of guest: middle of the road, easy, physically active, and we designed our marketing campaign for that sort of person. We bought a place near a world-class ski area, but we priced and marketed our place for families and young couples. We accept dogs and children in all our rooms.
We surprise people with our breakfasts. During ski season, we also feed them simple suppers. Our marketing strategy is to attract people to our lodge who don't have preconceived B&B expectations, then surprise them.
Because we're not, and will never be, a high-end B&B, we actually decline reservations that involve weddings. Tom was a church organist for many years, and he's dealt with far too many psychotic brides and their insane mothers. We cater to people we can welcome into our home, make them feel welcome, feed them good stuff, have good conversation, and send them to a meticulously-clean room with a comfortable bed.
Our marketing strategy is pretty simple, really. We know the kind of people we want to attract to our lodge, we market to that segment of the population, and when they show up, we treat them and feed them better than they expect. They get delirious and tell all their friends how cool we are, and pretty soon, they're sending all their friends up.
Most of our guests have never stayed in a B&B before.Those who have are surprised at how "un-B&B" we are.
Our marketing is all about crafting people's expectations before they show up, so they aren't disappointed once we give them the key to their room.
And the secret is really us.Tom and Julie. We're what make our B&B a success. We are the secret. We interact with our guests. We make them feel like guests in our home, and not patrons of a hotel.
Also, our website acts as a filter. People looking at it aren't going to think that we're a high-end romantic place. We don't want to attract everyone, no matter how much money they have. We want to attract people who look at our website and say, "Wow! That's so cool!" while discouraging people who wonder if the hot tub's up to temp..