Guest amenities – The secret ingredient

Creating a home-away-from-home experience is top of the list for most serious boutique hoteliers, it’s the key to winning return customers. One of the more subtle ways of creating this atmosphere is through your choices of supplied of guest amenities. Offering these toiletries can close the gap between being a four-star boutique hotel and creating a real five-star luxury hotel that gives your guests everything they need. The aim of the best hotelier’s is to give guests a place to relax and enjoy themselves without ever having to think about what they need, and these extra little comforts help to achieve that. Janet Stansfield, owner of the Rosebery Hotel, Newcastle upon Tyne, says she likes to “provide every amenity a guest could possibly require” during their stay, which includes shampoos, conditioner, body lotion, cotton wool, cotton buds, fresh linen towels, hairdryers, “and we also supply crystal decanters full with bubble bath, if the rooms have a roll top bath.” She goes on: “Of course hand wash and hand moisturiser. In the bedrooms, we also supply a range of specialty teas and coffees. Homemade cookies and muffins are also tucked away in rather charming picnic hampers too.” Bathroom essentials Largely focused on toiletries, guest amenities include products such as shampoo, shower caps and shower gel. In recent years the quality in products that hoteliers are buying is on the rise, and the only way to stand out above competitors is to have the best offering in all areas of your hotel, including the guest amenities that you offer. Murray Roberts, sales and marketing director at Aslotel, says: “We are experiencing a move towards providing higher quality guest amenities. Hoteliers that ‘get it’ are investing in the little extra touches that make all the difference to their guests. Hoteliers have realised the positive impact internationally recognised brands have on their guests. Astute hoteliers realise that a third-rate product has a negative effect and therefore conveys the wrong message. After all, the hotel business is all about hospitality.” While these may be seen as luxury additions by some guests, other guest amenities such as soap are obviously an essential offering. Choosing the right way to present your soap could make a huge difference to the level of quality that your guest believes you are offering. Soap can be offered in sachets or a pump, buying in quality-looking pumps can add an extra dimension to a bathroom and add that little bit of class to your guest offering. Another particularly popular and professional looking type of guest amenity is the modern personalised range. You can now easily order personalised products so that the hotel brand and logo is on the packaging as opposed to the brand of the product. This can give an extra ‘personal’ touch to a hotels offering of guest amenities, and will give the guest the perception that the hotel is not afraid to spend on the overall guest experience. There is also increased demand for some of more more luxury guest amenity products. Carolyn Dearlove, director of sales at Hotel Emporium, says “it reflects the quality of the hotel, can enhance the décor of a bathroom, and overall raises the guest perception of the hotel, as it’s one of the first things that a guest notices when they walk into the bathroom; if the amenities look and feel luxurious and are well presented there is an immediate feeling of quality.” Other products More subtle and handy items scattered around a bedroom can include pens, tea sachets and even sewing kits. Jon Shepherd, CEO of The Beach House Agency, which operates the Hotel Buyer online store, believes that the best hotels are the ones that offer the largest variety of guest amenities, citing that some hoteliers even offer their clients loofahs and socks. “A good range of amenities,” he says, “sends a message to hotel guests that says, ‘we’re glad you’re here and we’ve tried to think of everything that you might need to feel at home’. It acknowledges that you are paying a great deal to stay here and the least we can do is give you a few small tokens to make your stay comfortable. Guests will talk about things like that to others when talking about their stay. ‘They even gave me a pair of socks to use’ is a lot better than; ‘they didn’t even give you a shower cap’”. But what about cost? Despite having to stock a large amount of guest amenities for each customer, when compared to a hotel’s overall revenue, guest amenities are generally at the cheaper end of the cost base. Roberts adds: “[Guest amenities] are not expensive when you consider the cost of provision set against the hotels’ RevPAR. A lot depends on the hotelier’s outlook of course and what they think of their guests. Amenities are a reflection of the hoteliers’ commitment to provide the complete guest experience.” Shepherd adds guest amenities are a miniscule cost for a hotelier: “Most amenities are a few pence, our shower caps start at 4p but even a relatively expensive item like a good dental kit is less than 50p. 30ml bottles of shampoo start at around 10p. For a hotelier to create a hotel that stands out from its competitors the small, nuanced offerings that it provides are just as important as the larger things. Guest amenities will significantly to help give a hotel bedroom that home-away-from-home feeling and in-turn will generate more positive reviews for a hotel. This feature first appeared in the December 2014 issue of Hotel Owner.