PR Pro Successfully Markets Maine “Green” Hotel
Inn by the Sea PR and Green Program Manager Rauni Kew is today’s Monday Maine Maven.
Inn by the Sea is a luxury property located on sandy Crescent Beach, just 7 miles from Portland. The Inn was selected as one of the Top 50 Resorts in the US by Travel and Leisure this year, and has also been selected as one of the Top Ten Green Hotels in the US by Forbes Traveler, proving it is possible to be green and luxurious at the same time!
The Inn by the Sea has 61 fireplace rooms, one and two bedroom suites and just completed construction on ten new luxurious one and two bedroom Beach Suites.
1.) Rauni, you have done a terrific job at Inn by the Sea to protect the environment and promote sustainable foods while encouraging guests to enjoy your beautiful Inn.
What has been the most effective way for you to communicate with current and prospective guests about all the good things you are doing there?
Marketing a “green” hotel is not as difficult as it may sound. But, unless incredibly eco-minded, most guests don’t want to hear about the hotel’s efforts around reductions in water, waste, energy and chemicals- it’s boring.
But finding ways to engage guests in the inn’s environmental message through great food stories, or whimsical programming can actually add value to their stay.
2.) Tell us about your environmental programs, and how you have been able to implement them while at the same time building your business.
Pampering for hi flyers.
The Inn’s landscape is designed to be attractive to both butterflies and guests. We invite guests to join the head gardener for garden tours to learn how to create backyard wildlife habitats at home. Guests walk the indigenous landscape and learn how to have beautiful, ever blooming gardens that also create habitat and food sources for wildlife, and how to create gorgeous nectar gardens that also support endangered butterflies.
Kids at the Inn take fanciful “Bug’s Life” classes where they create their own butterfly costumes and learn about ecosystems from a bug’s point of view. The classes quietly speak volumes about the Inn’s commitment to the environment.
Captivating Cuisine.
The easiest way to engage a guest in sustainability is probably through a celebration of local food. Whether sharing information about the fungi forager who brings locally foraged mushrooms or fiddleheads to our menu, or details on the Nubian goats at a neighboring farm that produce the chevre for our velvety cheesecake, a good local story around food just makes it all taste better.
And guests won’t see Chilean Sea Bass or even Cod in Sea Glass Restaurant. The chef, working with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), and a handful of local fishermen, identified abundant and delectable fish from the Gulf of Maine that are underutilized.
Out of the Blue is a GMRI program that promotes serving delicious but lesser known fish. Out of the Blue hopes to bring attention to abundant seafood available in the Gulf of Maine, to get better dock prices for fishermen and to help preserve the diversity and health of the Gulf of Maine.
Guests are introduced to the program by their servers. Trying new flavors fresh from the Gulf of Maine while supporting Maine’s fishing industry has been very well received.
3.) How do you use social media to communicate with current and prospective Inn guests?
Social media is part of the Inn’s marketing mix: the Inn tweets at @InnbytheSea, posts to Facebook, pins to Pinterest, and responds to all guest comments on sites such as TripAdvisor.
Social media has been one of several outlets used to successfully introduce the Inn, its services, and share news such as the pictorial progression of the winter construction of the new Beach Suites the Inn opened this summer.
Social media has also been great to promote surrounding community activities as well as network with current and prospective guests. The Inn however has had some but very limited success at sales conversions through social media.