Why toiletry brands matter in accommodation:
Exploring the amenities of a hotel or B&B is one of the greatest pleasures when you have booked a room. Premium television channels, extra comfy beds and pillows, or a luxurious bathrobe can make a stay that much more delightful. One thing these establishments focus hard on, are their toiletry supplies.
As everyone knows the most crucial feature of a hotel room is the toiletry selection in the bathroom.When you are forbidden from traveling with shampoo or liquid soap, you can get some at your accommodation. Some tiny bottles of shampoo, body wash or conditioner are better than others. Finding the one that will work for just about everyone is pretty hard. This is because none of us have the same preferences in scent and so on. So how do these businesses decide which products to stock in their bathrooms?
The decision is based on a consideration of function and brand identity, and it is often helped along by lobbying from different manufacturers. The hospitality experts who run hotels and B&Bs put a lot of though into providing their guests with just the right toiletries. Not right as in expensive but right as in works well enough so that a person feels clean after using them and it is consistent with the image the business want to convey.
Boutique hotels that employ their own specialists, decorate their own rooms and so on, would most likely be more focused on what is going on in their bathrooms. This is integral to the atmosphere they want to keep and the experience they want their guests to have.
Partnerships between hotels, B&Bs and other accommodation may take place with companies personally visiting the establishment and then making a proposal. Some establishments would settle for local manufactured goods or an exclusive supplier so that they have never run out. The establishment could initiate the partnership by looking for companies themselves by means of sampling their goods and proposing a deal.
These partnerships between the establishment and manufacturers are often forged more systematically. It’s standard for brands to actively approach their clients about their offerings, often with tailor-made brochures in hand, and some feature entire catalogs for people in the hygiene industry from which a manager can order amenities. Some companies are specifically focused on the accommodation industry while some see it as an opportunity to get their products in front of guests who might consider buying the products independently.
You will not be surprised to find the most research-intensive approach to choosing amenities than at large hotel chains, for which the toiletry collection can become a multi-million dollar investments. According to Forbes, the design and development team at Marriot International tested “52 brands of shampoo, conditioner, body gel, lotion and soap before choosing the perfect one for its Marriot Hotels around the world.”
One of the main ways to get guests to know whether they have done a good job in making their choices is whether guests take the samples home with them. Wouldn’t you take a sample if you liked it?
