The Terra Cotta Inn Vaction Experience is Unique and FUN!!!

I just got this private message on Facebook:

"We spent our first [nude] vacation together at the Terra Cotta Inn for ________ birthday. It was fabulous beyond comparison, and you guys were absolutely hospitable.

You two are amazing hosts and we speak glowingly of you whenever the opportunity arises. Other resorts offer tennis, restaurants, parties and such (we've now been to several from coast to coat), but none of them compare to your level of warmth and hospitality. It really feels like a home away from home from the moment when you first arrive. In a nut-shell, you changed our lives for the better.

Here we are, almost three years later, AANR memberships in hand and with a different outlook on life. We live naked now, as much as possible...

In marketing classes, you are taught one of the words never to use is "unique." It is said that there are no unique businesses, thus it's an over used description.

Yet, as you can see by this e-mail we received we ARE unique. We average over an 80% repeat guest rate which is one of the highest in the travel industry. Nudists LOVE our resort.

The only people who don't like staying here are swingers, people who don't like others around or don't like talking to other people, snobs, and pretentious people. We always recommend them to another place in town. Happy, friendly, fun loving nudists love it here. First timers love it here too.

We truly are unique. Yes, there are other places out west where you can drop trou and be naked. But, none are as fun as the Terra Cotta Inn. And of course what our guest left off, is yes, there are other naked places that do have restaurants, are bigger, etc, but almost ALL are just weekend getaways. Who wants to book a week somewhere and have to go out Mon-Fri for breakfast, etc because you accidentally booked somewhere that pretends to be a vacation resort. How much fun is it to be at a place with multiple swimming pools and no one else around to talk with?

As the ONLY nudist vacation resort that caters to couples on vacation out west, we are busy and popular 7 days a week. That's why our repeat guests come from around the world to stay here although most are from all over the US, Canada, England, Australia, and Mexico.

So give us a call at 800-786-6938 to make reservations or for information. We answer the phones from 8am-10pm PST.

Visit our site at http://sunnyfun.com

Visit our Facebook resort page at http://bit.ly/TerraCottaInnFBPage

Make this the year to finally say good bye to your funny tan lines forever.

71% of Small businesses in the US still don't use Social Media

Social media has been great for our nude sunbathing business. I've been blogging for 4 years now. So many guests heard about us for the first time because of this blog. Also once Facebook allowed business pages to be "liked" that has also been a great way to tell everyone about nude recreation and The Terra Cotta Inn, Palm Springs, California. Also, we were the FIRST nudist resort to use twitter over 2 years ago.

It takes time to properly do social media. But, what I notice is those nudist resorts that use social media marketing hit or miss or not at all are struggling getting and retaining guests. Those that invest the time to use social media marketing wisely are very popular like us.

Here's the story:

"Majority Of Small Businesses Still Not Using Social Media

Discover relays disappointing stats

Facebook and Twitter are a part of many people's everyday lives, but lots of small business owners still aren't taking advantage of those potential "in"s. New data from Discover indicates that 71 percent of small businesses don't use social media for any sort of self-promotion.

Discover said in a statement, "In polls conducted in April and October of this year, the percentage of small business owners who are members of an online social networking community increased from 48 percent to 59 percent. But only 29 percent of all small businesses said last month that they have ever used social networking websites to promote their businesses."

...A separate profile can be useful for making a business more visible, though. Discover said, "36 percent of approximately 3,000 consumers told Discover that they would consider using a small business that they heard about through a social or business networking site, up from 31 percent in 2007."

News Tags: Marketing,"

For the full story Click here

Tom Mulhall
Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort and spa
Located in Sunny Palm Springs, California
Our resort site at: http://sunnyfun.com
Visit our Resort Facebook page at: http://bit.ly/TerraCottaInnFBPage

Nudism and Social Media Marketing

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Nudist Resorts and Facebook - Study shows only 6% of corporate Facebook fan pages have 2000 friends or more

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Win up to $500 in prizes from Palm Springs tourism in their photo contest

Palm Springs tourism does a great job marketing our beautiful town. Here at Terra Cotta Inn, we have been open 15 years. In that time, we have had some mediocre tourism heads and now we have a very creative tourism department and leaders.

Our tourist department just created a photography contest where you can win up to $500 in prizes. You can use your prize money to stay at Terra Cotta Inn.

First you must join the Palm Springs tourism flickr group at:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/palmsprings

Here are the rules from the Palm Springs tourism flickr group:

"Palm Springs Photo Contest

Visit Palm Springs is a group administrator Visit Palm Springs says:

Do you have a photo that captures that iconic image expressing the beauty, history and charm of Palm Springs?

Those who visit and live in Palm Springs know that there are amazing views, attractions, historical sites and entertainment.
Both amateur and professional photographers are invited to enter the Palm Springs Photo Contest to showcase their best images of Palm Springs' attributes and attractions.

What to Enter
The Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism is seeking images that portray Palm Springs as an attractive, unique destination. Images will be judged on originality, technical excellence, overall impacts and artistic merit.

Suggested Shots
Photos of plants and wildlife
City and desert views
Interesting angles of familiar places
New and old architectural treasurers

Prizes
Winning images will be featured in Palm Springs Bureau pf Tourism marketing materials. A total of $500.00 in prize money will be distributed, including a Grand Prize.

Adding photos to the Visit Palm Springs group on Flickr and entry to the contest constitutes agreement to allow photographs to be used by the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism to promote Palm Springs as a travel destination through its print and online materials.

How To Enter

1. Join the Palm Springs Flickr Group www.flickr.com/groups/palmsprings
2. Name Digital File as follows: Photos Title by Photographer's Name (example: Sunrise in Palm Springs by John Doe)
3. Upload an image into Flickr Group. Image must be 300 dpi and high-resolution.
4. Contest ends September 30, 2010.

The photo contest is open to everyone. Photo must be original and not have been previously published in any promotional materials, websites, etc.

The Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism shall have the right to verify, in their sole judgment, winner eligibility. By submitting a photo, you agree that you have obtained all necessary rights, permissions, consents, approvals and releases from any persons and commercial entities show, involved in the creation, displayed or who does or may have any interest or rights in connection with the photograph submitted."

Good luck everyone.

Above is a picture of Patty our manager. This is a typical Palm Springs scene at our resort, Terra Cotta Inn. Our guests are completely relaxed.

You will love Palm Springs. Although I haven't had a chance to upload this story yet, Tripadvisor.com just picked Palm Springs as one of the top 4 weekend getaway destinations in the US. It's also a perfect place to take a vacation.

FYI, Terra Cotta Inn is a historic property being a midcentury modern Albert Frey building.

Tom Mulhall
Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort and spa
Resort site: http://sunnyfun.com
Friend us on facebook at http://bit.ly/TerraCottaInnFBPage

For more information or to make reservations, call us at 800-786-6938

We hope to see you soon in sunny Palm Springs!

Is Twitter a Fad That will Fade?

I've been using Twitter since about May letting people know all about our resort The Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort and spa, last minute availability,airfare sales, interesting stories in the nudist world, etc.

I find twitter useful and stupid. I have learned about last minute airfare sales from it (and I pass on the information or retweet it), I have learned more marketing techniques. I have learned interesting news stories and more. So in that respect, Twitter is a useful tool.

Also Twitter was the first to break many news stories even alerting the mainstream media to them such as the uprisings in Iran over their elections and information about the jet that had an emergency landing a few months back in the Hudson river.

Why People Magazine even sent out a tweet on Friday August 28th about our resort dog Godiva passing away. Here it is:

"RT @PEOPLEPets R.I.P. Godiva the dog, a nudism fan Lady Gaga would've loved: http://ow.ly/n7k3 (Tx and condolences to @nudist_resorts)
2:00 PM Aug 28th @peoplemag" That's pretty big as People Magazine has 1.4 million followers.

That said, twitter is also an extremely boring fad. I don't care that Shaquille O'Neal ate an ice cream cone. I don't care that someone is bored and painting their toenails. And I would bet most people don't care about those tweets either.

I think twitter will be like blogs and evolve. There are well over 100 million blogs and most are abandoned shortly after being started. Technorati estimates 1.6 million blogs are active on a daily basis and 16 million blogs are active at least once every 90 days.

So I find twitter will be very useful for people looking for information and useless for people who don't care what some stranger ate for lunch.

Here is a poll from Vanity Fair and 60 minutes. You will notice a good percentage think Twitter is a fad. It will be interesting to see what twitter evolves into.


"November 2009 The Vanity Fair/60 Minutes Poll


Do you think TWITTER is … ?


TOTAL 18–29 30–44 45–64 64+ MEN WOMEN
A fad that’ll fade 39% 51% 48% 35% 16% 10% 37%
Heard of it, but unsure what it is 33 24 24 36 53 54 41
Important new tool 15 22 14 14 9 11 8
What’s Twitter? 10 3 12 11 15 17 13"

For the full poll click here

Tired of boring overpriced chain hotel vacations? Looking for something fun and romantic? How about a clothes free vacation at The Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort and spa located in Palm Springs, California the sunniest city in the US.

Terra Cotta Inn is the most mainstream nudist resort in the US. It is perfect for couples trying topless or nude sunbathing for the first time. You will love it here as it is so much fun.

Give us a call at 800-786-6938 to make reservations or for more information.

Visit our site at http://sunnyfun.com

Become a Facebook friend at http://facebook.com/terracottainn

Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/nudist_resorts

We hope to see you soon in sunny Palm Springs!

Nudist resorts need to do a better job at marketing themselves

I spend lots of time marketing our nudist resort on line. Although we average just over a 75% repeat guest rate, we still need new customers every day. Marketing is my job at our resort, The Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort and spa.

What makes me write this post is there is a group on Facebook called Sleeping Naked. It is a fun group with fun posts. It has 125,625 members when I checked earlier today. Yes, that is right, over 125,000 members.

I looked at AANR's (American Association for Nude Recreation) Facebook group and they had 469 members. TNS, The Naturist Society was not much better at 529 members. Terra Cotta Inn has less than 100 members. However, our free yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/friendsoftheterracottainn has almost 3000 members. So I am not a complete online idiot :-)

I couldn't believe it, 125,000 members in a group called Sleeping Naked. That is fantastic numbers. Why do they have so many members and nudism so few?

The press loves to cover nudism. Look at how they covered the Guinness World Record Skinny Dip.

The only conclusion I can come to is nudism just is not being portrayed as fun. And if it doesn't seem like fun, people won't be interested.

This is what is on The Naturist Societies Facebook page:

"Our Mission Statement

The mission of The Naturist Society is to promote a culture of body acceptance through clothing-optional recreation using the tools of education and community outreach...

The Naturist Society views clothing-optional recreation as essential to body acceptance. Through clothing-optional recreation, participants, be they individuals, couples or families, learn to appreciate the diversity of body types, gain a better understanding and acceptance of their own bodies, and reap the social, psychological and physical benefits of a healthy and natural way of life..."

No where is the word FUN mentioned. And that is the one thing that all nudists and naturists say about nudism and naturism. It is FUN.

Now the Naturist Society is free to market themselves however they feel to promote their organization. I for one though, think FUN has to be involved. That is why our website is http://sunnyfun.com

This Sleeping Naked Facebook group really opened my eyes as to what a bad job I and most other nudists are doing promoting nudism. And I am sure this affects the bottom line for nudist resorts and organizations.

Now if you want to take a fun vacation, give us a call at The Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort and spa located in sunny Palm Springs, CA.

We are the most mainstream nudist resort in the US and are perfect for couples trying topless or nude sunbathing for the first time. You don't even have to be a nudist to vacation with us.

Visit our site at http://sunnyfun.com

Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/nudist_resorts

Hope to see you soon in sunny Palm Springs!

England may finally recognize that nudists are discriminated against

PR is fantastic in the marketing of nudist resorts, as is the internet like this blog. However, one of the worst ways for nudist resort marketing is word of mouth. Yes, when you vacation at a nudist resort all people talk about is what nudist resorts they have vacationed at however, outside the nudist resorts, no word of mouth.

So many of our guests tell us their best vacations ever are at our resort. And then when we ask "how many non nudists have you told about our place," 95% of our guests say none. They are too afraid to admit they are nudists.

I have always said being a nudist today is like being gay back in the 1960's. You have to be in the closet for your own safety. Now some places like Palm Springs, it is very accepted. I was even the campaign treasurer for one of our city council members and was elect the president of the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce.

Yet, if I was to try to teach school, I wonder would I have a hard time getting a job admitting I was a nudist?

In England they are starting to realize the discrimination against nudists.

Here is the story:


"The Government Equalities Office, overseen by Labour’s deputy leader, ranks the prejudice faced by those who wish to go naked wherever possible as equivalent to that experienced by homosexuals, ethnic minorities and the elderly.

A recent review into discrimination includes a submission written by British Naturism, which was selected for display on the website of the equalities office alongside work by Stonewall, the gay rights group, Age Concern and the Runnymede Trust, which campaigns for racial equality.

“Naturists encounter prejudice in employment,” it reads.

“This is a particular problem for people in the caring professions and education...

There is a thriving industry devoted to naturism in Britain, including more than 100 naturist-friendly campsites and a selection of luxury cruises where clothing is optional...

British Naturism has 16,000 members but claims there could be 1.2m naturists in the country, with many choosing to cover up their hobby.

Now it is urging the Government and other authorities to make “affirmative statements” in favour of naturism.

Andrew Welch, commercial manager of British Naturism, said the type of discrimination suffered by naturists today was similar to that endured by gay people before the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967...

“The presumption of many in society that a person without clothes is always up to no good is archaic and discriminatory.”

For the full story click here

It would really be cool if England was the first major government to speak up positively about nudism. Here in Palm Springs, we are highly thought of by our local government because we have such a high occupancy rate, but that is just small town politics, not national politics.

I wish British Naturism good luck with their cause.

Now if you want to try topless or nude sunbathing for the first time, feel free giving us a call at 800-786-6938.

We are the most mainstream nudist resort in the US and are perfect for couples trying topless or nude sunbathing for the first time. You don't even have to be a nudist to vacation with us.

Visit our site at http://sunnyfun.com

Hope to see you soon in sunny Palm Springs!