I just love looking all those cute little soaps and shampoos when I go to a hotel/inn; However, I am leaning towards using dispensors for these products to reduce waste etc. Do most B&B customers prefure the little products to the dispensors? Do you know if customers are disapointed when they don't receive personal sized amenities? The little products can be personalized with the Inn's logo and I like that, but I like the environmental advantages of the dispensors. Any thoughts are appriciated.

- Marie

I hear you. I collected so many soaps and amenities I haven't had to buy soap for years! That's compounded by the reality that I don't use bar soap any more -- only liquid soap/bath gel now.

Not only do I find the gels to be lest wasteful than bars, but I also find the bath clean up easier because the gel doesn't leave as much film as bars do. That's a nice perk!

I'm not sure what "most guests" prefer, but I'm into giving guests options, except when it comes to my environmental policies. The way I'd handle the situation of private labeled amenities vs bulk dispensing would be to sell the private labeled products (making sure they are the same products, merely a different fromat) in my gift shop. Guests do love buying soaps to take home as souvenirs and thank you gifts.

There are lots of ways to handle the options. Anyone else have ideas?

We 'accidentally' ended up with a different approach to the selection of our soaps. I ran across an ad in German Life magazine about Spieck. It is a German soap and we are in New Ulm, MN, a German town, so it turned out to be a fun match! They allow us to order their sample size to put in guest rooms: these small bars are a bit more pricey or a bit less pricey depending on what angle you are going for (logo, quality, value...) but our guests seem to just love the idea because it is unique. Maybe like when B & B's offer homemade soap? Because it is "german" it acts like a logo for us, oddly enough.

I do still wonder about the dispensor stlye for envioronmental reasons and waste issues. We have stopped putting the little shampoo bottles in the room (it is an ecological nightmare!). One, nobody ever used them, nor took them and everyone seems to bring their own hair care. I have the same brand shampoo in a reg size( no little ones available) and I think it works because, again due to the specialized product, offers a 'value added'? I guess I wonder if the B & B guest is looking for different amenities and is just not that concerned with the typical resort-y little bottles? So, sometimes schitck (if it is thoughtful and clever and caters to guest needs) can override routine?

Are there some other creative soap/shampoo solutions out there? and any pointers on how to sell more in the gift shop? I notice a couple comments on that. I mean people just rave over this soap at breakfast (great clean smell, different, fun, blah blah...silly huh?) but we really don't sell much. So, when people say they sell soaps, are you selling lots, or just a couple bars a month? I guess I don't know whether to focus more marketing on that gift shop angle..any of you selling oddles of stuff in your shops I would love some thoughts. Thanks!

Hi all,
We began with the dispenser mounted on the shower/tub surround and have discontinued them in favor of individual guest size bars. Why? We have yet to discover a dispenser that doesn't eventually drip. The mess of soap, lotion, shampoo, that went down the wall and across the tub/shower floor was a waste. Plus you had to check it and quick give it another scrub right before guests checked in.

Just another point of view.
Teri Nelson
Sweet Autumn Inn

Thanks Terri, and Welcome to B&B Talk.

I've seen the dripping problem other places and can see why it would cause you to abandon the use of them. I wonder if anyone out there knows of a brand of dispensers for the shower that don't drip that they would like to share the name of.

We use a dispenser of liquid hand soap on the sink, and are happy with that, but we haven't found any solution we like for the shower. I've actually wondered about using the same kind of decanters in the shower but filled with shampoo. The ones on the sink don't seem to drip, so it may be a solution to the shower as well. Not quite as convenient as a wall dispenser. I may try it for a couple of weeks and see how it works.

As Kit had suggested above, we use Fuller Soaps with a custom label on their Glycerin bars.

saiinnkeeper wrote:

We began with the dispenser mounted on the shower/tub surround and have discontinued them in favor of individual guest size bars. Why? We have yet to discover a dispenser that doesn't eventually drip. The mess of soap, lotion, shampoo, that went down the wall and across the tub/shower floor was a waste.

Please note that not all liquid soaps are the same. Dispensers should use soaps with a viscosity (thickness) between 100 and 2500 cp. Soaps with less viscosity may experience problems similar to the ones you described.

Cp or centipoise is the measure of viscosity with one cp being equivalent to one millipascal-second. Water has a viscosity of 1. Kerosene is rated at 10, Motor Oil SAE 10 has a viscosity of 100 cp, castor oil is 1,000, and corn syrup is 10,000. Molasses has an astounding viscosity rating of 100,000 cp.

The soap dispensers we use are for the most part, not wall mounted units. We use disposable plastic containers with push down nozzles of the type that you might find in any pharmacy, supermarket, or dollar store.

We used to use decorative ceramic dispensers but discontinued these units for two reasons.

1) The housekeeper had to unscrew the caps to see how much soap was left in each container.

2) The tubing that feeds into the dispenser is often much thinner than the tubing used in plastic dispensers. The result? Liquid soap dries, blocking the tube and the dispenser stops dispensing soap.

The only wall mounted unit we have is a commercial quality soap dispenser manufactured by Gojo. http://www.gojo.com/ This dispenser is mounted in the kitchen next to our employee handwash station. We have not experienced any problems with dripping soap, though we have always been careful to use the manufacturer's recommended brands.

Bobbi wrote:
Are there any pointers on how to sell more in the gift shop? I notice a couple comments on that. I mean people just rave over this soap at breakfast (great clean smell, different, fun, blah blah...silly huh?) but we really don't sell much. So, when people say they sell soaps, are you selling lots, or just a couple bars a month? I guess I don't know whether to focus more marketing on that gift shop angle..any of you selling oddles of stuff in your shops I would love some thoughts.

I don't sell soaps, but I do offer Amish jams since the community I'm living in is attracting more and more Amish who are moving up from Lancaster.

Guests rave about the Amish jams that are served with breakfast, so I began offering a few bottles for sale.

I don't sell a lot of jam - usually just 2 or 3 a month.

I typically sell these jams on Sunday because Amish stores are always closed on Sunday. Guests who want Amish souveners, buy these jams as they're checking out.

I don't actively market these jams. In fact, if anyone were to ask, I'd direct them to a store just outside of Lykens that's filled with Amish and Mennonite wares.
_________________
Inn at Elizabethville