Koreans support other Korean businesses. So do the Chinese, Poles, Mexicans, etc. Gays support other gay businesses. Almost all minorities and ethnic groups support their own ethnic businesses.
Sometimes I think the ONLY people who do not support their own businesses are nudists.
This year more than ever, I have had people come here for day use and stay at a textile hotel. Almost all of them are AANR or TNS members or belong to a club. They never even call us for our rates as they just assume we will be overpriced like the naked places in Mexico or the Caribbean and thus they overpay to stay at an inferior textile hotel instead of staying with us.
It happened again this weekend.
We had a couple who are members of Glen Eden which is a big nudist club about 70 miles away. They called Saturday for day use. We told them we had a room available that night and we were told no they got a great "deal" at a textile hotel, so they would only be coming by for day use.
When they got here, we learned they were staying at the Ace Hotel. It is one of the trendy hotels du jour. They have a PR agency, so they are generating a lot of press. They're advertising tiny rooms with double beds (not even queens, we have California king sized beds) for $99/night.
Sounds reasonable good until you get the other expenses and see your small room. When you get there, you have to pay a resort fee of $25/night, breakfast is about $35/couple/day, and day use at our resort is another $30/day. So the textile hotel "deal" cost $405 for 2 nights. Plus they couldn't check in until 4pm and had to leave by noon. Where we allow 10am check in and 5pm check out at no extra charge.
If they had stayed at our resort, in December before Christmas we have a special of stay 1 night, the 2nd is half priced. Our rates with tax would have been $282.65. No resort fee, no charge for breakfast, or wine and snacks in the afternoon or day use. Thus, they would have saved $122 over the weekend by supporting our resort a nudist resort instead of the textile hotel chain who doesn't care about them. And they could have been nude all weekend.
Yet, when I asked them why they didn't book us as we were considerably cheaper for a superior facility, they told us they never called us or any other nudist place in Palm Springs. They just assumed we were more expensive.
This isn't the first time this has happened to us this year where card carrying nudists booked textile hotels, never called for rates as they just assumed we were more expensive and thus overpaid.
Running a nudist resort is a very hard business. It is a labor of love as you will not get rich at it like you would owning textile hotels. You have to believe in nudism and nudists to own and operate a nudist resort. Am I frustrated, you bet.
Probably only 10% of our guests are members of AANR or TNS. The people who should be supporting nudist resorts are the ones that don't. Thus we had to create our customers. As we have been told many times, we have probably created more nudists in the US than any other resort or club. Even people who have never been to our resort have told us they finally went somewhere because of reading our blog, our tweets, talking to us many times on the phone, etc.
I have no answer on how to get nudists to support nudist businesses in the US. Do you?
This year I have worked harder than ever marketing online. Last year I work 60 hours a week. This year I average about 75 hours a week with the additional time being all online marketing. This year I have had 5-6 so called "true nudists" tell me that I promote my business too much online. They said if I didn't stop promoting it on twitter, facebook, here, etc they would not go to my resort because they are tired of seeing the name Terra Cotta Inn all the time online.
Now I wonder, did they e-mail Coke, or Budweiser Beer saying they promote their products too much and if they didn't stop advertising on TV, they would never drink another Coke or Bud again? Of course not. Yet, they tried to intimidate a small nudist business into not marketing online. And those people have never been to my resort! And I'm supposed to take marketing advice in the worst recession since the 1930's from them? Why won't many nudists support their own in the US.
Thus, I promote to first timers as I know once they book here they will become our repeat guests as we are a FANTASTIC VALUE. In November MSNBC picked us as one of the 3 best deal nudist hotels in the whole US.
So nudists, please call and talk with us before booking a textile hotel in town and overpaying for your vacation. And call and talk with other nudist places before you vacation somewhere else. And stop going to all the naked places in the Caribbean and Mexico. Most are NOT owned by nudists. That's why they gouge you. Nice places like Cypress Cove in Florida and us in the US are fantastic values as MSNBC said.
And first timers, you're lucky as you get to stay in one of the best small resorts in all Palm Springs. This December in Palm Springs Life Magazine, the Best of the Best issue, we were selected as one of the top 3 boutique hotels in ALL the Palm Springs area, pretty cool for nude sunbathers.
Give us a call at 800-786-6938 for more information or to make reservations.
Visit our site at http://sunnyfun.com
Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/nudist_resorts
We hope to see you soon in sunny Palm Springs!
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