Niche Marketing for Bed & Breakfasts

Niche Marketing


As your InnMarketing Specialists, B&B Marketplace has been reading that a number of industry experts are forecasting a push in coming years towards differentiation in the lodging industry, as travelers demand more choice. Niche marketing is an approach through which that differentiation is achieved. It has the advantage of making a B&B or inn stand out from the competition and eliminates the pressure to lower prices which is the bane of mainstream players.

Developing a niche implies paying close attention to what different groups of consumers are looking for in a lodging experience and identifying an unmet need. For example, among business and pleasure travelers, nearly 50% travel alone. Yet, many lodging establishments give them less consideration than they do to couples and families. Niche players who have been paying close attention to the moans and groans of single travelers are shifting their operations to satisfy their desires: women-only B&B’s, extravagant hotels that appeal to men, etc.

Another important factor in developing a niche market is assessing how widespread is the unmet need. Visiting travel review websites, such as TripAdvisor.com, will provide important clues to what consumers are looking for… and not getting. If you spot a frequently recurring complaint among users of such sites and you can provide the solution, your future is promising.

Don’t overlook other sources of information such as customer satisfaction surveys of your guests, articles published in trade journals and on the web, studies conducted by universities and tourism development agencies, even conversations in elevators. When a staff member overheard pregnant women talking nostalgically about their vacations, the Woodside Hotels and Resorts Group introduced a new product called Babymoon aimed at future mothers looking for one last weekend of pampering before giving birth.

The third key to a lucrative niche is to make sure that your target clientele is accessible, i.e. that you can easily reach it through your various advertising tools, that it is cost effective to serve and that you are conveniently located.

Finally, check out the competition or lack thereof. Ideally, no one player has a stranglehold on the market. But, beware! If there are no competitors, ask yourself why. Have others tried before and failed? What went wrong? Can you use a different approach that will assure you success while, at the same time, making it difficult for your competitors to follow in your tracks?

As for determining who to target, start by looking at yourself. With whom do you have the greatest affinity? Are you concerned about the environment? If so, transforming your B&B into an eco-friendly establishment would certainly fulfill the needs of those who share your concerns, reduce your impact on the environment and lower your operating costs. By targeting those who share your values, life experiences, hobbies, activities, etc. you can offer them highly personalized services because you are better attuned to their needs.

Another area to explore is the emergence of new trends. Society is constantly evolving and what was considered acceptable a decade ago is no longer so today. For example, trans fats are out and unsaturated fats are in, which means meals served at your inn are expected to be cooked with olive, canola or sunflower oil. In fact, as awareness of the obesity epidemic increases, there will be a growing demand for B&B’s and inns that serve truly healthy, freshly prepared meals as opposed to processed foods.

As we enter an era of global warming, consumers increasingly reduce, reuse and recycle at home, and they expect to see the same practices being followed at the lodging establishment where they choose to stay. It won’t be long before we’ll see B&B’s routinely selling carbon offsets.

Other trends include finding destinations where every member of the family benefits (not just the kids), traveling with an emphasis on doing rather than seeing, combining pampering with contributing to the well-being of the local community where they are staying. Finding out all you can about these trends will reveal avenues that you are in a position to exploit.

The last step in developing a niche is to determine the viability of your concept. Begin by surveying your friends, family and preferred guests. Then, seek the opinion of experts at your area economic development agency, college or university where there is a tourism program, consulting firm doing tourism research, etc.

If you and the people whose opinion you trust find that your idea has lots of potential, proceed on a small scale and fine tune as you go along. When you are satisfied that it can’t be made any better, take the plunge and enjoy the ride!

Dominique Lavigueur and Robert Chiasson contributed this blog. They operate Moka & Pyjama, a consulting firm that caters to aspiring and current B&B operators. They also teach and write about many aspects of innkeeping. The couple can be reached at 1-418-452-1132, by e-mail at info@moka-pyjama.com or through their web site.


Your InnMarketing Specialists
Claude & Mariette Gagne
The B&B and Country Inn MarketPlace®