Shirts or polos with logo

[Alibi Ike]

LLBean and Land's End with embroider shirts... but just 10 character max. Not really enough.
I've been thinking of making some T-Shirts for the business to sell. Do guests actually buy souvenir T-Shirts or do you give them away? What sizes do you stock, usually?.

We have logo t-shirts, sweatshirts, aprons & ball caps. The t-shirts are pretty fast sellers. I buy M, L, XL & XXL. We offer them in 2 colors. The Large are the first to go. Right now all I have left are 2 med and 1 large. We sell the t for $14 and the sweatshirt for $28
When I re-order the sweatshirts, I want to get hoodies. I think they would sell quicker in the Pacific NW because nobody here uses umbrellas unless they're tourists.
Aprons rarely sell, but I still carry them so that I have a fresh supply for myself and I give them away when I have someone attended my individualized aspiring innkeeper seminar.
The hats I've gotten free from vistaprint. When I do the 'free" orders, most of the time a hat is listed in the free merchandise. I just have it embroidered with the name of the b&b. Again, a great giveaway. I've also gotten their 'free' tote bag I've personalized. It's another free giveaway I'll periodically give to a return loyal guest.
We also have pens, mugs, wine glasses & champagne flutes with our logo/name and my homemade cookbook. The mugs are very simple and very cheap.
When you add up our merchandise, romance packages and add-on picnic basket & meals, we've been able to increase our revenue so far this year by $9,000. That number is higher for us this year because we've been able to offer add-on dinners, but in the past it was not uncommon to see about $4,000 in revenue just on the other items.
A friend of mine has created a great little gift shop at her inn and really has stocked a lot of local artist's items (jewlery, soaps, pottery, etc) and sells a lot! I know that places located in cities have a little tougher time selling since there are so many stores your guests go to, but if you're able to stock small things your guests can bring back to family as a gift, they tend to buy it from you because it's easy.
.

I never get an offer of free hat at Vista. A lone pen maybe. Hmmm...
We have ZERO sales here for anything we've tried. I think you hit it...tons of stores, no need to buy something 'local' at the B&B. I have a rotating art gallery in the dining room. Zip on sales for that, too. Mugs get stolen. Still.
.

the only thing we seem to get stolen is non slip bath mats which is super weird.
.

the only thing we seem to get stolen is non slip bath mats which is super weird.

You can't be serious! We used to have those, no one used them, so we got rid of them and put non-slip strips on the floors of the showers and tubs.
(If it didn't cost so much, I'd mail the ones I have in the basement to you!)

 

[Alibi Ike]

We give the mugs aways as gift for a two night stay. We offer three things and the mugs are number one addly enough..

We give the mugs aways as gift for a two night stay. We offer three things and the mugs are number one addly enough.

How does this work? Is it on your website? That's a neat idea!

 

[Generic]

LLBean and Land's End with embroider shirts... but just 10 character max. Not really enough.
I've been thinking of making some T-Shirts for the business to sell. Do guests actually buy souvenir T-Shirts or do you give them away? What sizes do you stock, usually?.

We have logo t-shirts, sweatshirts, aprons & ball caps. The t-shirts are pretty fast sellers. I buy M, L, XL & XXL. We offer them in 2 colors. The Large are the first to go. Right now all I have left are 2 med and 1 large. We sell the t for $14 and the sweatshirt for $28
When I re-order the sweatshirts, I want to get hoodies. I think they would sell quicker in the Pacific NW because nobody here uses umbrellas unless they're tourists.
Aprons rarely sell, but I still carry them so that I have a fresh supply for myself and I give them away when I have someone attended my individualized aspiring innkeeper seminar.
The hats I've gotten free from vistaprint. When I do the 'free" orders, most of the time a hat is listed in the free merchandise. I just have it embroidered with the name of the b&b. Again, a great giveaway. I've also gotten their 'free' tote bag I've personalized. It's another free giveaway I'll periodically give to a return loyal guest.
We also have pens, mugs, wine glasses & champagne flutes with our logo/name and my homemade cookbook. The mugs are very simple and very cheap.
When you add up our merchandise, romance packages and add-on picnic basket & meals, we've been able to increase our revenue so far this year by $9,000. That number is higher for us this year because we've been able to offer add-on dinners, but in the past it was not uncommon to see about $4,000 in revenue just on the other items.
A friend of mine has created a great little gift shop at her inn and really has stocked a lot of local artist's items (jewlery, soaps, pottery, etc) and sells a lot! I know that places located in cities have a little tougher time selling since there are so many stores your guests go to, but if you're able to stock small things your guests can bring back to family as a gift, they tend to buy it from you because it's easy.
.

I never get an offer of free hat at Vista. A lone pen maybe. Hmmm...
We have ZERO sales here for anything we've tried. I think you hit it...tons of stores, no need to buy something 'local' at the B&B. I have a rotating art gallery in the dining room. Zip on sales for that, too. Mugs get stolen. Still.
.

the only thing we seem to get stolen is non slip bath mats which is super weird.
.

the only thing we seem to get stolen is non slip bath mats which is super weird.

Odd what people will take. With us it's the odd bottle of water or roll of toilet paper. I'd hate to see someone try to take my bathmat... they are so thick that they would need more luggage.

 

[toddburme]

We give the mugs aways as gift for a two night stay. We offer three things and the mugs are number one addly enough..

We give the mugs aways as gift for a two night stay. We offer three things and the mugs are number one addly enough.

How does this work? Is it on your website? That's a neat idea!
.

Check the front page of the website. we offer a discount on the massage, a wine tasting at the winery or the mugs. The reason we are so sold on the idea is gives a quick idea of what a person could do at the B&B. Even if you don;t do the two night stay, here is what we have around here. I keep wanting to cut it to two things but then I would cut the mugs and that far outweighs the other two conmbined so... hahaha