The rise and rise of in-room products

Jack Fowler reports

It doesn’t seem that long ago when in-room products were little more than bars of soap and sachets of shampoo. Fast-forward to today and it’s a completely different story. The products have grown in both number and quality; to the extent that they now represent an important part of the overall customer experience.

Hotels are always looking for ways to improve the services they offer, and in-room products are a sure-fire way of achieving this. In this article we report on some of the latest in-room products to hit the market, and the benefits they bring to both the hotel industry and its customers.

First up is Whitakers Chocolates who say: “Providing guests and visitors with the ultimate ‘stay’ experience has never been as important as it is now. Over the years guest expectations have increased and with so much choice in the market, standing out from the crowd is key.”

According to Whitakers, this is where branded gifts come into play. They say they are perfect in more ways than one; they suit most budgets, enforce your brand and look great, especially if you choose a chocolate gift option – after all, says the company, ‘who doesn’t like chocolate?’ Whitakers boast a large range of personalised gifts to suit any quantity and budget. Customers can choose from individually wrapped square chocolates, chocolate bars, to luxury chocolate truffle gift boxes – all of which can be fully personalised with the hotel brand. The Yorkshire-based chocolate manufacturer has been dedicated to chocolate for over 130 years and use only the finest, natural ingredients. They are also vegan certified, making their chocolates available to almost everyone.

Noble Isle is a quality bath and body brand, made in the UK using real perfumes sourced from celebrated producers around the British Isles. All the company’s products are natural, vegan friendly, cruelty free and support local businesses, using British ingredients.

Creators of Noble Isle have travelled the length and breadth of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to source authentic, quintessentially British ingrediants that celebrate our rich, cultural history. Noble Isle’s lotions and washes feature extracts sourced from some of the most celebrated local producers, including: rhubarb from Yorkshire, sea oak from Ireland, malted barley and honey from Scotland, and beets from Wales.

The company is striving to become more sustainable and all the base formulations will become cleaner, greener, and kinder to the environment in 2020. The packaging is fully recyclable, the hotel accessories are eco-friendly and through Noble Isle’s partnership with Clean Conscience, it is able to redistribute any leftover products to good causes around the globe.

The company’s products are stocked in Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, Liberty’s and other major retailers around the world.

Scentered®, an award-winning mindfulness lifestyle brand that offers a unique wellbeing ritual to help people use aromatherapy as part of their everyday lives, introduces an amenities line for luxury hotels worldwide, being exclusively licenced by Global Amenities Direct.

The new 100 per cent natural range of ecofriendly hair and body products is designed to help guests embrace modern lifestyle demands through the amenities experience in unexpected and thoughtful ways.

Found in some of the best hotels around the world, Duck Island’s sophisticated toiletries enhance the hotel’s reputation and provide guests with a welcome and appreciated luxury. The range consists of three original fragrances: Classic, Paradise and Pelican Spa, with three distinctive colour palettes.

With customers now demanding environmentally friendly products, all of Duck Island’s toiletries are paraben and mineral oil free and are never tested on animals. All packaging, bottles and caps are also recyclable. Duck Island London regularly features in Vogue magazine and it is now a well-known luxury brand, both in the UK and also worldwide.

New for Spring 2020, BC Softwear have launched SmartSoft®, a toweling collection specifically designed for hotels and spas that have an on-premise laundry, or are considering this investment and looking to reduce their carbon footprint and to minimise costs.

SmartSoft® includes an entire range of sustainable toweling solutions for hotels, spas or laundry businesses consisting of new SmartKnit® towels, SupremeSoft bathrobes and SupremeSoft spa linen that can deliver up to 70 per cent guaranteed energy savings in laundry energy usage; 65 per cent reduction in oil absorption; and 50 per cent reduction in drying times. All of which contributes to efficiencies in staff resources and costs. The range is 100 per cent guaranteed for the claims of sustainability and energy saving, which have been verified by independent reports provided by the Laundry and Technology Centre.

At the company’s factory in Turkey, savings have been made across the board, which includes the reduction in the amount of natural gas consumed in its processes and – through the factory’s solar power plant – has saved over a million trees and replanted trees in a 28 million sqm area that is eight times larger than New York’s Central Park. So there it is – the number of products and services that fit comfortably under the ‘In-Room’ banner are definitely in growth mode, and playing an increasingly important role in achieving customer satisfaction.