The right to stuff your travel kit with a swank hotel's soap and shoe buffer has always been part of the room rent Walking out with the towels, not. But now some of the classier accommodations are encouraging guests to take some of the most expensive items with them―after paying for them, of course. A little while after checking out of her room at the Regency in Manhattan recently, Edith Bianco of Bakersfield, Calif. added the following to her tab: a $45 bath mat, four down pillows ($28 each) and a $69 Frette bathrobe. The prices are reasonable, says Bianco, 66, and if you've stayed at the hotel, you know what you're getting. Hotel customers have been buying hotel water pitchers, beds and even bathtubs. Ritz-Carlton, Starwood, Four Seasons and Loews have started retail operations; smaller hotels are following suit. It's a tiny business so far. Bjorn Hanson, head of the hospitality group at PricewaterhouseCoopers, estimates such goodies brought in $25 million last year, with gross margins of 15% to 50%.
展开▼
