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Hello! We are new hosts in St Augustine, FL and we have been researching options online to provide our clients with small-size toiletries during their stay, i.e… pre-packaged soap, shampoo, conditioner and body lotion. The vendors we have found require big purchases since they normally supply big hotel chains.
Is any other host providing these to guests and if so, which company have you used?
Thank you in advance!
Hi and welcome! I think many hosts find providing small packaged toiletries not “green,” and have found other economical ways to provide toiletries. We have a wall-mounted triple dispenser in the shower and it’s stocked with body wash, shampoo, and conditioner. It’s sanitary, visually clean looking, and we can buy large gallons of these products in bulk (we use Shikai).
Hope this helps. If you really want to provide small items, I’m sure someone else will chime in with a source.
I agree @Karl_andBrenda_Baird it’s not terribly environmentally friendly to use small size items, and likely more expensive too.
I buy large bottles of decent toiletries for my guests to use.
We bought fancy brown bottles and stickers saying “hand poured” (these ones) and it looks super swish 
(and environmentally friendly)
I don’t even think my objection has anything to do with the environment. This is a very expensive way to provide your guests with toiletries! New hosts often fall for this trap because they want to recreate a high end hotel experience in the home. Please don’t fall for it and instead buy some really nice full sized toiletries that your guests can use during their stay.
I’ve had guests complain about the wastage involved with individually packaged toiletries, and I also dislike it when I am a guest, so now I provide large sized body wash and shampoo.
I think that’s a link to your actual transaction. Can you post the link to the product? It sounds appealing.
My family attended a funeral recently in which we all had to travel and stay at a hotel. My sister grabbed all the toiletries from everyone’s rooms and gave them to me. I have enough for 6 guests! Normally, I don’t buy single serve toiletries. I am putting them in a small basket in the bathroom, but I also keep a full size set of shampoo, conditioner, 2 body soaps and a moisturizer in there. I just keep topping them off. But, I don’t have a high volume guests, my ABB biz is intermittent.
Fixed! Sorry about that
Many older guests are not familiar with, or comfortable with using ‘communal’ body washes. I admit I don’t care for them, I never really feel clean…
We use Accent Amenities (accentamenities.com) Eco Science brand Shea Butter Body Bars – box of 100 (1.6 oz) bars is $31. Packaging is recyclable, the soap is vegetable based; it’s a very green product. I would say 2/3 of our guests use that over the mega bottle of body wash that a guest left behind (they used the provided soap instead).
unfortunately they only ship with Australia but sure they have something similar here. I would be worried about using glass bottles in case a guest dropped them in the bathroom, but like the idea of something in a non breakable material.
do you find the labels stay on well with repeated use?
Now this is interesting. I have a very high quality liquid bath soap in our bathroom, along with good quality shampoo and conditioner. Since this is graduation month here in the Cambridge, MA area, my guests are paying a rather large supplement to stay here right now. Given the amount that they are paying, I have placed an unopened glycerin, fancy-ass, artisanal soap [someone gives me soaps every year for Christmas that I don’t use] on a nice ceramic soap dish. So far? No one has opened the soap. They are using the liquid soaps, both hand and body version, in copious quantities.
Best of both worlds! I look generous, and it hasn’t cost me a cent.
All hosts differ in what they offer, There are only two items that guests always use - soap and shampoo. Many people prefer to use their own favourite products and either bring them along or shop for them once they’re here. (I’ve had plenty of posh toiletries left in the rental - a nice bonus for me!)
One option is to go along to somewhere like Target or Bed, Bath & Beyond. Both sell mini shampoos, baby powder, make-up remover etc. - all brand names. Then leave a new bar of soap (we use mini-Dove. still packaged) and a small bottle of shampoo. Tell your guests that if they have forgotten anything, to ask and you will supply it as you have spare toiletries on hand. (Mini toothpaste, tampons, q-tips and so on). If you’re offsite leave them in a bathroom cabinet - you’ll find that they hardly ever get used but you’ve done your bit.
I searched amazon and ordered a 100pack of packaged toiletries (qtip, cotton ball, etc) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015YXAI36/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and I ordered individually packaged bar soap. These two things I will continue to order individually packaged. I also keep inexpensive razors available. These things are all kept in a basket in the bathroom. When I first started I also ordered individually packaged shampoo and body wash, but I will be switching soon to large pump bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. You get a much better quality for your money, and I think people would use it more.
Most of my guests use their own products, but it’s probably because I only offer the little bottles of unknown quality. I suspect that once I switch to large bottles more people will use mine instead of getting out what they brought.
Oh, other good things to keep on hand: a first aid kit with individually packaged ibuprofen, tylenol, and benedryl. Though make sure to keep an eye on the expirations, ESPECIALLY the Tylenol. Most things simply get weaker after expiration, but Tylenol gets dangerous. I also keep a bottle of rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide in the medicine cabinet. I also keep an aloe plant in the kitchen window.
Please allow me to be the devil’s advocate for a moment 
. With all the liability issues in the USA, is it a good idea to provide any kind of medicine (even non prescription) to guests?
My natural state of mind would also be that’s it’s ok to provide these things 
, but what if someone gets an allergic reaction?
lol I was thinking the exact same.
Rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide and the ubiquitous but useless Polysporin have no place in a first aid kit. I’m an RN and provide wound care along with many other treatments. The rule for treating wounds is not to put any substance on a wound that you wouldn’t put in your eye. Alcohol and hydrogen peroxide cause damage to cells with no increase in removing bacteria.Standard of practice is to use clean tap water. Sterile saline isn’t necessary.
Aloe Vera is good for sunburn.
Polysporin causes more harm than good as it kills off normal bacteria and promotes growth of fungus. It’s most serious risk is that it delays people getting professional care for an infected wound. There are prescribed ointments for complex wounds that aren’t safe for the eye, but they are prescribed.
All I have in my guest room for “first aid” is bandaids but if there were a bigger emergency I could provide other things from my supply. Other than obvious hazards like slipping on a step or a frayed electric cord I don’t give much thought to liability. I would withold medicine from a suffering guest due to concerns about liability.
Really? This is definitely news to me. Growing up we had nothing but communal bars of soap. LOL. I find it hard to believe that older people can’t adapt to the concept of a large liquid bottle of shower gel. I had a mother in law who had to travel with her own things (she couldn’t even share with her own family) but she had a serious mental condition.