Welcome to The Reservation, a tPH letter including long-form analysis and cultural criticism of the hospitality industry and relevant trends.
In this letter: the state of play of hotel merch, we will soon be creating our own objects to take home, and an expert’s view on the most underrated merch products
Dear guest,
I have announced in an earlier edition of this newsletter that I very much appreciate good hotel merch.
By good, I mean visibly high-quality and thoughtfully designed.
Our hospitality experiences are often tied with memories and experiences, whether we’re with loved ones or on an introspective solo-dinner or stay. That’s why I love the idea of being able to immortalize the moment and leave with a piece of memorabilia.
While iconic institutions such as the Ritz have been doing merch seriously for some time now, it now seems that every single establishment, no matter how tiny, has some version of a brand extension offering.
Before we begin, some personal notes on the state of merch
On a recent trip to Paris, it was almost as if every boulangerie, matcha shop, restaurant, hotel, had their own version, which kind of exhausted the concept in my eyes.
I think we are possibly experiencing a collective exhaustion with luxury brand logos and the such, but is the solution to replace them with the signatures of our favorite restaurants and hotels?
I saw someone on here write that hotel merch has become a way of signaling being in-the-know, having been to the ‘right’ places and pledging allegiance to them in the form of a baseball hat or a tote bag.
But is this really true anymore? Now that every joint and their mom has merch, does it really make a difference?
I own a few hospitality merch items myself. I have a sports set from the Rosewood Asaya Spa (a collaboration with Sporty & Rich), and a t-shirt from a mini tapas bar on a Spanish island. I have attached memories to both, and wear them gladly.
But now with the proliferation, I don’t know what to think. Do I really want a tote bag from a bagel place? Or drink my coffee out of Ralph Lauren mugs?
Maybe it’s just an overall exhaustion with logos. I feel myself gravitating towards timeless design that has no logo on it whatsoever. I want to wear pieces that don’t have names on them.
A trend I’m noticing (and probably everyone else has as well) is brand lighters and matchboxes, the latter of which used to be pretty standard but disappeared for a little bit. Now both are in full swing (correlated with the fact that smoking is back in?).
Logos are a way for us to communicate taste, or a lack thereof. Understated signals, like a cap in the colors of a certain brand are way more attractive to me than, say, one that has a big Aman logo on it, if you know what I mean?
But I guess this also applies to me not wanting to wear a full Gucci monogrammed outfit, or anything else OTT so to say.
Anyway, now we’re done with my musings – let’s enter our very special house guest of the day.
“Everyone wants merch now” – the thoughts of a hotel merch designer
This week, I sat down with Katelyn Powers, a designer, creative, and all-around cool person based in Canada who has an impressive portfolio of brand names under her belt.
In hospitality and wellness, you can see her work under brands such as Ritz-Carlton, Othership, W Hotels, Ennismore, 1 Hotels, Airbnb, and many more.
Many of the items she has designed have become cult favorites, to the point where guests pocket the do not disturb -signs she has created (the small boutique property reacted by ordering plenty of more so that guests are able to continue this habit).
She is the person to speak about this topic.
Everyone wants merch now, but it’s not that easy to get right
More and more hotels and hospitality brands are feeling the pressure to have a merch offering.
According to Katelyn, the instinct is right. Merch is a way of creating a club, of expanding the brand world beyond the physical property and into a guest’s daily life.
“When someone wears your hat on the street or carries your tote to the grocery store, they show that they are part of the club that has visited that place”. But exclusivity is not the only reason people buy into merch. “Sometimes people just want to support and represent their favorite local spot, and buying merch is a good way to do that”.
In any case the pressure to have merch (and end up doing it quickly) and the ability to do merch well are two very, very different things, and most brands fall into the former category.
What hotels get wrong about merch
I asked Katelyn what pattern she sees across properties that get it wrong, and her answer was immediate: not thinking beyond the obvious.
“There’s too little intentionality. Hotels default to the obvious – a cream tote because it’s the default color – without pushing even slightly further.””
“Something as simple as a more considered color choice or an unexpected material can completely transform an object,” she says. “I mean it’s fabric, you have the option to pick any color. I feel like brands are often not thinking big enough”.
When everyone has merch, guests will automatically benchmark one brand’s offering to that of another.
With the proliferation of merch, there will be (and already is) a point of bifurcation where there is the generic stuff that almost falls in the same category as the free stuff you get at conventions, and the good stuff that has thought behind it.
Sometimes the difference between the two is using the company’s existing brand playbook to its full extent. “Brands now often have these incredible playbooks that they have paid a lot of money for, often including these cool small details that the designer rarely sees come to life". All of this, Katelyn says, is gold for creating elevated objects.
“Brands are often not thinking big enough”
– Katelyn Powers
Even a tote can be great, but a lack of thought behind any merch item is a problem.
Katelyn also points out that sometimes the hurdle for creating something memorable and worth the resources is that the brand has no dedicated person to handle the project. “You’re often met with a person from the marketing team who does not have the capacity or knowledge to handle a merch project,” she explains.
If the resources are spent and creating merchandise is deemed an important strategic objective, then enough time and budget should be dedicated for it to be executed well.
In my eyes, the equation is pretty simple:
Bad merch → brand image erosion.
Good merch → more revenue and happy guests representing your brand left and right.
Retail could be the missing piece for your property
Katelyn’s ongoing work with Othership, which is the super hip Toronto and NY -based bathhouse and wellness brand, gave her a front-row seat to the power of merch.
Othership has its own small and very aesthetically pleasing retail space that has become a cult favorite. “People love to get something to remember their transformative experience”.
Bathhouse culture and communal wellness experiences are still relatively new in North America, and when people go through something that genuinely shifts how they feel, they want to hold onto it.
“They bring them home and take pictures.”
And Othership’s array of merch doesn’t stop at the more obvious items of a hat and hoodie (which are both SO cute by the way). You can find sauna hats, custom essential oils, wooden body tools, herbal teas, and my favorite, signature incense to transport you right back to the bathing experience.
While I don’t know any specific numbers, it seems that merch has become an important additional revenue stream for Othership. Many hotels now have dedicated retail areas and mini shops that offer physical ways to opt into the property’s fantasy world.
Again, we circle back to the importance of doing merch well. If the products are good and thoughtful, guests will gladly opt in for post-stay immersion and tangible memories.
Scent and uniforms deserve more attention
Not all brand extensions are merch to buy. OS&E (Operating Supplies and Equipment) such as bed linens, towels, bathrobes, and staff uniforms all are touch points that impact the guest experience.
“Staff uniforms are the most visible expression of the brand that guests interact with all day, and are so important”. (Longtime tPH readers will remember that we covered the acute importance of hotel uniforms in an earlier letter).
Below, the most beautiful uniforms Katelyn designed for Othership.
Sometimes, OS&E and merch you can take home overlap. A hotel’s signature scent could also be something a guest can buy and take home in some form, whether it’s a candle or incense.
During our conversation, we even tossed around an idea of a scented bar that can be hung in the wardrobe, that can then be taken home.
Our house guest specifically mentions the power of scent in merch. “It’s psychological, it transports you in a way that no other sense does”.
(Btw, Katelyn told me that an unexpected merch object no one has taken her up on yet is a car air freshener – do it with her before someone else will)
What happens when every place has merch?
This question has been the object of my obsession for days, months, going on years. When everyone has baseball cap and a t-shirt, what’s next?
“We will be co-creating the merch,” Katelyn says.
We know that people yearn for experiences, they want to be offline, they want to literally and figuratively touch grass.
Guests will be expecting deeper personalization, and this could mean programming where they leave with something they helped create. To name a few that Katelyn mentioned: scent blending workshops, incense making, basket weaving, print-making.
This is where everything started making sense to me. I mean, isn’t this just the most hospitality thing merch could do; involve you in the creation? If hospitality is a reciprocal act, why shouldn’t hospitality merch be that too?
Is your mind blown? Mine is
Was this obvious to you all? Or are you just as dizzied by this predicament as I am?
The future of hotel merch is personalization, mirroring the hospitality industry in its entirety. Somehow just imagining notebook making or glass blowing workshops where you create something with branded colors and then take home makes my heart flutter and eyes tear up and feel like I can see into the future.
When anything proliferates, it creates a spectrum of slop – meaning, and we can obviously place the conference landfill adjacent totes on the other end, and a lovingly handmade (by you!) item on the other.
Whew, I hope you enjoyed this emotional journey, I was most certainly on one. If you have a hotel property and want to work with Katelyn (you should), you can find her here for all your design needs.
Extra! 3 hotel merch trends to keep an eye on according to Katelyn
Artists collaborating with hotels as people want to see the human touch (Katelyn worked on the W Hotels’ collaboration with Paris-based artist Thomas Lélu)
Consumable or perishable merch, such as branded skincare or beauty products
Seasonal capsule collections that are limited edition (start building your in-house design team now!)
Now I need to hear from you: what is the absolute best instance of hotel merch you have ever come across?
Thank you for being here, hope you’re enjoying your stay!
🔑 Emma
Hotel Pacai in Vilinus gave me some wooden scent spheres in its signature scent that made my luggage evoke some nice memories next time I traveled (and smelled great too!) Scent is totally one of those small, but overlooked ways of remembering a place.