We Asked: From quilters to scrapbookers, railfans to bikers, business travelers to pet lovers, kid-friendly accommodations to romantic escapes, what have been your experiences with niche marketing?

Question for our next issue: How have you used guest feedback to improve your inn? Please explain what tools you use to encourage comments, and the specific changes you've made in response.

Email your responses to InnkeeperNews@BedandBreakfast.com. If we publish your comments, we'll thank you with a $25 credit in our Featured Properties Auction program!

"We didn't plan to market to motorcyclists, but we get a lot of them as we are up in the Ouachita Mountains with scenic winding roads, good for riding. When a motorcycle touring magazine approached us about trading a room for a story, we agreed. The writer and photographer came when the inn was full of riders. Everyone had a great time and we and our guests got photos in the magazine. The resulting full-page story about the inn was great publicity. We now host several large groups of motorcyclists every year.

"A few years ago, Valentine's Day fell midweek, and that inspired us to come up with a plan for filling rooms throughout February. We originally offered Romantic Candlelight Dinners to guests staying the weekend before or after that Wednesday holiday. It is now so popular that we offer it for at least three weekends in Feburary, and many of those rooms are booked a year in advance!

"Another target period is the down time is in January, after the winter holidays and before the Valentine's Day period. We call these Soup Night Retreat Weekends. Folks grab a bite to eat on the way to the inn on Friday night, check in, change in to lounge clothes and we take care of the weekend. They read, play games, work puzzles, watch movies...whatever....and we fix up a couple of pots of soup/stew/chili. This crowd tends to be repeat guests who live just a few hours away. Many repeat guests have standing reservations for 'their' room on 'their' weekend.

"Since we are near Hot Springs, a major tourist destination, most of the other marketing we do is to remind folks of all the events going on locally. We send out a quarterly email newsletter with web links to the different events." Rhonda Hicks, Mountain Thyme B&B Inn, Jessieville, AR

"We have found a unique niche that works very well for us. Last year, my husband and I started organizing groups to take on a tour of Ireland. It was extremely successful. In fact, we are taking another group next month and have two trips already planned for next year. The side benefits from this unique niche are:

• We advertise the trips to our guests in our newsletter (this year we turned down 10 travellers because we limit our group size).
• We advertise the trips in the local papers, and at the same time advertise our B&B.
• Out-of-town members of our group stay at our B&B before and after departure, and also for the night before our pre-departure party held 1-2 weeks before departure. This works out well since we travel during slow months.
• We have a great time and meet a wonderful new group of friends!