Marketing to Motorcycles

[JBloggs]

What do you do, if anything to market to motorcycle riders in your area?

 

[Madeleine]

We haven't deliberately tried to market to motorcyclists with any kind of special page on our website, but these are the things we've had them tell us they want. Not sure if you were more looking for how to market or what. There's a blog in there somewhere!

• Know where the 'good' rides are;
• Be flexible about cancellations (if it's really bad out there they do cancel at the last minute);
• Provide a place to wash the bike, old towels and a garden hose;
• Know where to go or provide for their laundry needs;
• Under cover parking is desired but not entirely essential;
• 'Safe' parking is essential

 

[gillumhouse]

I offer turn-by-turn routings to hills, scenery, twists & turns. I have off-street parking and have posted several inn-to-inn packages and day trip pacakages. I have blogged about the rides. I have posted my info on several motorcycle web sites. Even better, bikers have posted about us. Like everything else, it is a crap shoot. I have given freebies to the Wing Ding (national Gold Wing Rally). I have had Gift Certificates purchased as wedding gifts because of the motorcycle references on my web site.
I built a relationship with one of the ad people with the GoldWing magazine and she has tipped me to features they were doing - motorcycle friendly, inn-to-inn packages - that I was able to send in blurb and photo in time to get in the article. I joined the GWRRA for a couple years to get their magazine to check out events. Sent GCs for door prizes for the publicity angle as most were never used. One from Tennessee came with a couple who PAID. The Mississippi couples saw us in the magazine with the inn-to-inn.
Added: I do not market to my area - they have to be 75 to 100 miles away to consider coming. A 300 mile ride is a day trip to bikers.

 

[Weaver]

As someone who's every single stay at a B n B was while on a bike I agree with Madeleine.
Safe flat parking, under cover is bonus!
Options for dinner near by, walking if possible.
Knowing the off the beaten path roads, neat places, and biker friendly businesses is essential.
Bikers love their dealerships! Contacting surrounding dealers (Honda and Harley) might help get the word out. If your bikers are on a long road trip laundry facilities, local auto parts stores/bike shops (for parts and fluids), and directions to the post office are all important to us. WE love to shop - offering a shipping service to send purchases home was always appreciated.
Frequently we left home with the saddle bags packed and no plan on where we were staying. We often chose a place near where we ended our day, we found them at the local bar/restaurant or the local HD dealer. Local is not always a bad thing with bikers cause we start out 200-300 miles away and some of us have no clue where we might be sleeping that night. Makes the road trip more fun.
The class of rider today is much different than what it was 15 or more years ago. Doctors,Lawyers, Dentists, Accountants, and Business owners all ride bikes. And DON'T forget the women riders, more women are driving motorcyles now, many have girls weekends from the front seat and not the back of the bike.

 

[Joey Camb]

As a side bar we have cyclists (ie manuel peddle power) comming each bike is worth $6000 so we are storing them inside as a favour its this kind of thing people appreciate and blog/tripadviser about which helps. We are hoping to get the Tour De France to come to Yorkshire (my county) for 2016 so am really hoping to get a slice of that action. Over the next 10 years we get the - commonwealth games, Olympics, cricket world cup, rugby world cup and hopefully the tour de france. The only one we havn't secured is the Football world cup which I am gutted about as we would have made a fortune as one of the stadiums is would have been only 10 miles away so we would have got a lot of overflow. With the Tour if we get it not only do we get all the race people, journalists, tv and people watching but we get about 3 weeks of Yorkshire being flimed and on TV all over the world which is advertising you can't pay for!

 

[JBloggs]

As someone who's every single stay at a B n B was while on a bike I agree with Madeleine.
Safe flat parking, under cover is bonus!
Options for dinner near by, walking if possible.
Knowing the off the beaten path roads, neat places, and biker friendly businesses is essential.
Bikers love their dealerships! Contacting surrounding dealers (Honda and Harley) might help get the word out. If your bikers are on a long road trip laundry facilities, local auto parts stores/bike shops (for parts and fluids), and directions to the post office are all important to us. WE love to shop - offering a shipping service to send purchases home was always appreciated.
Frequently we left home with the saddle bags packed and no plan on where we were staying. We often chose a place near where we ended our day, we found them at the local bar/restaurant or the local HD dealer. Local is not always a bad thing with bikers cause we start out 200-300 miles away and some of us have no clue where we might be sleeping that night. Makes the road trip more fun.
The class of rider today is much different than what it was 15 or more years ago. Doctors,Lawyers, Dentists, Accountants, and Business owners all ride bikes. And DON'T forget the women riders, more women are driving motorcyles now, many have girls weekends from the front seat and not the back of the bike..

As someone who's every single stay at a B n B was while on a bike I agree with Madeleine.
Safe flat parking, under cover is bonus!
Options for dinner near by, walking if possible.
Knowing the off the beaten path roads, neat places, and biker friendly businesses is essential.
Bikers love their dealerships! Contacting surrounding dealers (Honda and Harley) might help get the word out. If your bikers are on a long road trip laundry facilities, local auto parts stores/bike shops (for parts and fluids), and directions to the post office are all important to us. WE love to shop - offering a shipping service to send purchases home was always appreciated.
Frequently we left home with the saddle bags packed and no plan on where we were staying. We often chose a place near where we ended our day, we found them at the local bar/restaurant or the local HD dealer. Local is not always a bad thing with bikers cause we start out 200-300 miles away and some of us have no clue where we might be sleeping that night. Makes the road trip more fun.
The class of rider today is much different than what it was 15 or more years ago. Doctors,Lawyers, Dentists, Accountants, and Business owners all ride bikes. And DON'T forget the women riders, more women are driving motorcyles now, many have girls weekends from the front seat and not the back of the bike.

You know where I am, on America's Favorite "Ride"469 miles of no stops...off street paved private parking, big front porch, walk to licensed restaurants...
We have women riders, in fact one who writes for a motorcycle magazine stayed with us last year. If I find her card I can tell you who it is.

 

[gillumhouse]

As someone who's every single stay at a B n B was while on a bike I agree with Madeleine.
Safe flat parking, under cover is bonus!
Options for dinner near by, walking if possible.
Knowing the off the beaten path roads, neat places, and biker friendly businesses is essential.
Bikers love their dealerships! Contacting surrounding dealers (Honda and Harley) might help get the word out. If your bikers are on a long road trip laundry facilities, local auto parts stores/bike shops (for parts and fluids), and directions to the post office are all important to us. WE love to shop - offering a shipping service to send purchases home was always appreciated.
Frequently we left home with the saddle bags packed and no plan on where we were staying. We often chose a place near where we ended our day, we found them at the local bar/restaurant or the local HD dealer. Local is not always a bad thing with bikers cause we start out 200-300 miles away and some of us have no clue where we might be sleeping that night. Makes the road trip more fun.
The class of rider today is much different than what it was 15 or more years ago. Doctors,Lawyers, Dentists, Accountants, and Business owners all ride bikes. And DON'T forget the women riders, more women are driving motorcyles now, many have girls weekends from the front seat and not the back of the bike..

As someone who's every single stay at a B n B was while on a bike I agree with Madeleine.
Safe flat parking, under cover is bonus!
Options for dinner near by, walking if possible.
Knowing the off the beaten path roads, neat places, and biker friendly businesses is essential.
Bikers love their dealerships! Contacting surrounding dealers (Honda and Harley) might help get the word out. If your bikers are on a long road trip laundry facilities, local auto parts stores/bike shops (for parts and fluids), and directions to the post office are all important to us. WE love to shop - offering a shipping service to send purchases home was always appreciated.
Frequently we left home with the saddle bags packed and no plan on where we were staying. We often chose a place near where we ended our day, we found them at the local bar/restaurant or the local HD dealer. Local is not always a bad thing with bikers cause we start out 200-300 miles away and some of us have no clue where we might be sleeping that night. Makes the road trip more fun.
The class of rider today is much different than what it was 15 or more years ago. Doctors,Lawyers, Dentists, Accountants, and Business owners all ride bikes. And DON'T forget the women riders, more women are driving motorcyles now, many have girls weekends from the front seat and not the back of the bike.

You know where I am, on America's Favorite "Ride"469 miles of no stops...off street paved private parking, big front porch, walk to licensed restaurants...
We have women riders, in fact one who writes for a motorcycle magazine stayed with us last year. If I find her card I can tell you who it is.
.

We have women riders, in fact one who writes for a motorcycle magazine stayed with us last year. If I find her card I can tell you who it is.
Please do.
When I was still riding I took trips by myself on my bike. I once went fishing on Lake Erie and it cost more to ship my fish home than I paid for my fare on the party boat (a boat that takes MANY fisherman out on the lake for a set number of hours). It was on that ride the possibility of a tornado popped up on the way home in flat Indiana.
For our "pedal pushers" we store the bikes on our porch and they can lock them to one of the porch posts. With the police station in direct line of sight to the B & B and them driving by going to and from their rounds, we have not had any problems. One time, at 1 AM we got a call and wakened the guest to check his vehicle because the door was open. Since nothing was taken, it was surmised they failed to shut it when they came in because they were tired. The guest was a cop himself.