Take-home amenities and brand recall

Why guests take things

Guests take items because they are useful, pretty, or a keepsake. A tiny shampoo that will not be used is rarely taken. A good soap, a neat jar or a pair of slippers is more likely to leave in a bag. Think about what you would want to take yourself.

Look at what leaves your property today. Ask housekeeping which items are most often missing from rooms. That is real evidence of what guests value, and it costs nothing to collect.

What helps recall

Scent: a fragrance is strongly linked to memory, so a pleasant, consistent scent has the best chance of being remembered.
Usefulness: the item gets used at home, and so seen again.
A small, tasteful label: your name and place, not a slogan.

See signature fragrance for how scent can be tied to a property.

Scent works because it is tied to a place and a time. A guest who opens a soap at home weeks later may recall the room. That is why a consistent scent across room, spa and lobby is useful; it builds a single memory instead of several faint ones.

Decide what to allow

You need a policy. Which items are free to take: soap, a small bottle, slippers? Which are for use in the room only: dispensers, towels, robes? Say so in a short card in the room. Guests are happy to follow clear guidance and unhappy to be surprised by a charge.

Think also about the alternative: no take-home at all. Some hotels, especially those focusing on refills, prefer guests to leave only with memories, and offer a boutique for those who want a keepsake. Both are legitimate choices; what matters is that you choose consciously and tell guests clearly.

If you do allow taking, count the cost per guest night and decide whether it fits your budget. A small take-home item in every room has a very different annual cost from one given on request.

Make it easy to repurchase

Recall helps only if the guest can act on it. Put a short line on the label or card saying where to ask for more, such as the reception or the hotel boutique. If you sell online or by message, add that contact. See hotel retail for packs designed for sale.

A card with a short, plain line is enough: the product name, the scent description and where to find it. Keep it accurate. Avoid claims you cannot support.

Do not forget waste

Take-home plastic is a real concern for guests and communities. A balance is to offer a few take-home items made to be kept, and use refillable dispensers for daily use. The sustainability page describes how these two approaches fit together.

Where possible, choose containers that can be reused at home: a jar, a pouch or a good bar of soap. These tend to be kept, not thrown away at the first opportunity.

How to judge whether it works

Be honest about measurement. Brand recall is difficult to measure exactly. Practical signs include: guests asking where to buy, repeat bookings mentioning the item, comments in reviews, and retail sales. Ask at checkout, and add a line to your feedback form. Keep a simple tally for two months and review.

Do not claim your amenities increase bookings unless you have your own evidence.

One more signal is unprompted mentions. When a guest describes the smell of the lobby or the bathroom in a review, that is recall in action. Keep a folder of such comments and share them with the team; it helps justify the spend and keeps staff attentive to the detail.

Run a short survey at checkout once a year: one question about what they remember most. The answer may surprise you.

A simple test

Choose one take-home item and run it for a quarter. Leave everything else unchanged. At the end compare comments, boutique sales and repeat enquiries with the previous quarter, allowing for season. If the result is positive, keep it; if not, change the item, not the whole programme. You can ask for samples to try different items.

Questions on this topic

Do take-home amenities increase repeat stays?

They may help, but results vary and are hard to prove. Track your own comments and rebooking to judge.

Should we put our logo on bottles?

A small, tasteful label is enough. Large logos tend to look like advertising.

What is the most-taken item?

It varies by property. Soap, slippers and small bottles are common, but track your own data.

Keep reading

Looking for supply? See Hotels & resorts, browse the product range or request samples.