There are many unique benefits to a sampling program at a bed & breakfast that other distribution methods cannot match:
- Peer Messengers: Innkeepers are trusted "peer messengers" instead of a typical anonymous sampler. Most guests rely on their innkeeper for dining and activity tips, and many develop a close relationship with their innkeeper. Thus, when an innkeeper recommends a product, it carries more weight with guests.
- Relaxed Atmosphere: It's hard to find a consumer more relaxed than when they are on vacation being pampered at a cushy bed & breakfast. Because guests are relaxed and not distracted, they are more amenable to trying and enjoying a new product.
- Real Life: Because of the home-like setting of an inn with dining room, living room, gardens, guestrooms and baths, we are able to distribute samples in a way that shows guests how the product is relevant to their life without intruding on or disrupting their normal, everyday behavior. For example, Taster's Choice coffee was served at breakfast, with additional samples left throughout the day so guests could easily whip up a quick cup of coffee. Tylenol PM was distributed at night, often with turn-down service. Lipton tea was served in the afternoon. Minute Maid orange juice was given out at breakfast. Soft soap, lotion and Uncle Tom's toothpaste were placed in bathrooms.
- Highest Quality: Inngoers tend to associate bed & breakfasts with high quality. Thus, they tend to associate any product being used by an inn with those same high standards.
- Measurement: We keep in regular contact with our innkeepers during the course of a sampling program. We gather guest and innkeeper comments about the product and about the sampling process while the sampling program is still ongoing. Once the program is complete, we conduct online surveys, compile the data and forward it to the client. Innkeepers also often provide photos of displays and consumers with small incentives such as prizes/Visa cards/etc.
- Best Inns: We have more than 21,000 active inns and bed and breakfasts in our database, but we work exclusively with the top 5,000 or so properties. A typical sampling program includes 1,000-2,000-3000 inns. Since our staff researches, writes and interviews innkeepers on a daily basis year after year, and we have guest reviews and consumer feedback every day we are able to pinpoint America's most gracious, professionally run properties. We remove substandard inns from showing up on our website. The quality inns we use reflect that quality onto your product. This is not airB&B but professionally established, highly rated businesses highly.
- Experience: American Historic Inns, Inc. has 15 years of consumer promotion experience, beginning with our first promotion for Nabisco in 1990, which was called "the best promotion in the 100-year history of Nabisco Shredded Wheat."
- Target Audience: We have the ability to target your consumer by market and class of inn. Sampling programs can be created nationally or in regional key markets. Room rates range from $100 to $700 and there are key selection points. You can choose water oriented inns, historic properties and urban inns. Since the psychographics of inn guests are similar in all these places, national brands fit well for people who love to travel, are adventurous, educated, early adapters and social. We work with more than 10,000 inns in the United States and Canada.
- Full Customization: Programs customized to reach client objectives and position samples as part of the inngoer experience.
If you would like more information about our sampling programs, call our promotions department at (800) 397-4667 or e-mail at dsakach@iloveinns.com. We'll be happy to answer any questions you might have and/or brainstorm how a bed & breakfast sampling program could work for your product.
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