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.
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