As the owner of a small, family-run hotel dry amenities packaging supplier, I’ve spent the last 12 years on the floor of our 10,000-square-foot warehouse, talking to the front desk managers, procurement agents, and general managers who pick what goes into the tiny bottles, wrapped bars, and individually wrapped soaps that sit in every guest room from coastal boutique stays to urban chain properties. For a long time, I thought our job was just to put nice-smelling shampoo and conditioner into pretty packaging and ship it out on time. But over the past five years, especially post-pandemic, that’s shifted—hard. The biggest driver of that change? Simple: consumer preferences. Every choice our customers make about their hotel’s dry amenities, from the size of a travel-size soap to whether the packaging is plastic-free, ripples all the way back to our design team, our sourcing partners, and even the price point we quote. It’s not just about what smells good anymore. It’s about what guests care enough to notice, and more importantly, what they care enough to ask for. Hotel Dry Amenities Packaging
Let’s start with the most obvious shift that’s defined the last few years: the demand for sustainable packaging. Back in 2019, when we’d walk into hotel procurement meetings, sustainability was a nice-to-have, a line item in a marketing brochure that a few boutique hotels dabbled in. Now? It’s the first question out of every single manager’s mouth when we sit down to talk. Last month, I met with a group of 12 hotel general managers at a conference in Austin, and 11 of them told me that reducing single-use plastics in their amenities is a top priority for 2024. Why? Because guests are voting with their wallets. A 2023 study from the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) found that 68% of leisure travelers say they choose hotels based on their sustainability practices, and 52% are willing to pay 10% more for a stay that prioritizes eco-friendly amenities. That’s a huge number, and it’s changed everything about what we offer.
A few years back, we got a call from a small boutique hotel in Portland that wanted to switch their 30ml plastic shampoo bottles to a refillable aluminum system. At the time, we didn’t have the infrastructure to source food-grade, BPA-free aluminum or print custom, water-based labels that wouldn’t peel off in the shower. We had to scramble to find a local packaging manufacturer and invest in a new printing press—something that cost us $15,000. But that investment paid off. By 2022, 40% of our client list had switched to some form of sustainable dry amenities packaging, from compostable paper soap wrappers to 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic bottles. The catch? Sustainable packaging isn’t a one-size-fits-all fix. A hotel in rural Vermont, where most guests are looking for a rustic, nature-focused vibe, might opt for 100% compostable cornstarch packaging that dissolves in 90 days. But a downtown hotel in Chicago, where guests are more focused on luxury and convenience, might prefer PCR plastic bottles that are slightly sturdier and don’t leave a crumbly residue if a bottle leaks. We’ve learned that we can’t just offer one sustainable option—we have to tailor it to the hotel’s target guest, which means adjusting our sourcing and production for every single client.
Another big shift in consumer preferences that’s hit our business is the demand for smaller, more customizable amenities. Pre-pandemic, the standard travel-size soap was 40g, and every hotel used the same generic scent—vanilla, coconut, something that wouldn’t offend anyone. Post-2020, though, guests started paying more attention to personalization. The AHLA study I mentioned earlier also found that 45% of travelers say they’d appreciate amenities tailored to their needs, whether that’s fragrance-free for people with allergies or vegan products for plant-based travelers. That’s changed our entire inventory. We used to keep 5 scents of shampoo and 2 sizes of soap in stock at all times. Now, we keep a stock of 12 different scents, plus fragrance-free, vegan, and paraben-free options, and we can customize packaging with a hotel’s logo, tagline, or even a small note like “Enjoy your stay!” printed on a paper wrapper.
Last year, we worked with a chain of 15 mid-tier hotels in Florida that asked for all their amenities to be fragrance-free, plus a small batch of lavender-scented amenities for guests who specifically requested them. At first, we thought it would be a logistical nightmare—switching between scents on the production line, making sure we didn’t cross-contaminate fragrance-free products with scented ones. But it ended up being a win for both sides. The chain’s guest satisfaction score went up by 12 points that year, according to their internal surveys, because so many guests had been complaining about overly scented amenities before. For us, it meant we had to rearrange our warehouse to have separate production stations for scented and fragrance-free products, but it also meant we were able to pick up three more clients that same quarter because we proved we could handle that level of customization.
But it’s not just about what guests want—it’s also about what they don’t want. Over the last two years, we’ve seen a huge backlash against overpackaging. That tiny wrapped bar of soap that comes in a plastic wrapper inside a cardboard box? Guests hate it. A 2022 survey from TripAdvisor found that 72% of travelers find excess packaging in hotel amenities “wasteful” and “annoying,” and 61% say they’d skip using an amenity entirely if it has too much packaging. That’s why we’ve started offering minimal packaging options: bars of soap wrapped in just a single layer of compostable paper, no inner plastic, small shampoo bottles that don’t come with a separate plastic cap cover. It’s a small change, but it’s made a big difference. Last year, 80% of our clients asked for at least one minimal packaging option, up from 22% in 2020.
There’s another layer to this, too: the role of social media in shaping consumer preferences. When a travel influencer posts a photo of a luxury boutique hotel’s empty amenity bottles lined up on a bathroom counter, or a TikTok of a guest cutting open an overpackaged shampoo bottle to throw the excess away, that spreads fast. We had a client in New Orleans that posted a Reel of their new PCR plastic amenities, and it got 1.2 million views. Within a month, three other hotels in the French Quarter reached out to us, asking for the same packaging, because their guests were asking why they couldn’t have the same ones they saw on the influencer’s page. Social media has turned hotel amenities into a marketing tool, not just a functional one, which means our packaging has to look good enough to post about. That means clean, minimalist designs, neutral colors that match a hotel’s branding, and packaging that’s photogenic without being over the top.
Of course, it’s not all smooth sailing. We’re a small supplier, so we can’t compete with the big national brands on price. When a hotel is looking to cut costs, the first thing they’ll ask is if we can lower our pricing, which often means switching to cheaper, less sustainable packaging. But we’ve found that hotels that prioritize consumer preferences over short-term cost cuts tend to have higher guest retention rates, which means they’re repeat clients. A 2023 report from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration found that hotels with guest-centric amenities programs have a 15% higher repeat booking rate than hotels that don’t. That’s why we’ve worked with some of our long-term clients to adjust our pricing gradually, as we’ve invested in more efficient production processes and better sourcing, so we can keep offering the sustainable, customizable amenities their guests want without breaking their budget.
Another challenge is keeping up with rapidly changing regulations. States and cities across the U.S. are passing laws that restrict single-use plastics, especially in hotel amenities. For example, California passed a law in 2022 that bans single-use plastic toiletries in hotels with more than 50 rooms, starting in 2025. New York and Oregon have similar laws in the works. That means we don’t just have to anticipate consumer preferences—we have to anticipate future regulations, too. Last year, we hired a part-time compliance officer to track these laws and adjust our offerings accordingly. We started developing a line of refillable amenable dispensers, which are already required in some California cities, and we’re working with a manufacturer in Minnesota to source 100% plastic-free packaging for all our products by 2026.
I’ve been in this business long enough to remember when a hotel’s amenities were an afterthought. When I started in 2012, we’d get a list of products a hotel wanted, ship them, and that was it. Now, every order comes with a list of guest surveys, social media trends, and regulatory updates that shape what we send. It’s not just about packaging—it’s about understanding what guests care about, translating that into practical solutions for hotels, and adapting quickly when preferences shift.
At the end of the day, the relationship between consumer preferences and hotel dry amenities packaging is a two-way street. Guests tell hotels what they want, hotels tell us, and we adjust. It’s a cycle that’s only getting more important as travelers become more conscious of their choices, more vocal about what they want, and more likely to vote with their wallets. For our business, that’s meant growing faster than we ever anticipated, investing in new technology and infrastructure, and getting to know our clients’ guests as closely as we know our clients.
If you’re a hotel procurement manager, general manager, or someone who’s tired of generic, overpackaged amenities that don’t fit what your guests want, we’re here to help. We can work with you to design packaging that aligns with your brand, meets consumer expectations, fits your budget, and complies with local regulations. Whether you’re looking to switch to sustainable packaging, customize amenities for your target guest, or just streamline your ordering process, we have the experience and flexibility to deliver what you need.
Hotel Shaving Kit References
American Hotel & Lodging Association. (2023). 2023 State of the Hotel Guest Report. American Hotel & Lodging Association.
Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. (2023). Guest-Centric Amenities: Impact on Retention and Revenue. Cornell University.
TripAdvisor. (2022). Traveler Preferences in Hotel Amenities: A Global Survey. TripAdvisor Inc.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2022). Single-Use Plastics in Hospitality: Trends and Solutions. U.S. EPA.
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E-mail: mike@ecohotelamenities.com
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