My favorite hotel story of the day, a customer reported that they stayed at the Hampton Inn Dallas-Arlington Entertainment District and there was no soap in the bathroom. Initially, I thought that this customer had an issue with the liquid soap that hotels provide instead of the bar soap that I typically like.
But no, I was wrong. This customer went to the front desk and asked for soap or body wash. The Front Desk stated that soap and body wash is not provided in their standard rooms. Let’s stop for a second. No soap for standard rooms. I guess you are entitled to soap if you sign up for a suite. I had not realized that this is a perq that was reserved to the high end rooms at the Hampton Inn’s.
This approach did beg the question on why no soap? I did a quick analysis and found out that by eliminating the soap, a hotel can save between $6,000 and $15,000 a year. Is it worth it to the hotel to eliminate this basic item to save between $6,000 and $15,000 a year?
For those interested, I calculated this as follows:
Assumptions:
- Average Hampton Inn Size: While sizes vary, a typical Hampton Inn might have around 100-130 rooms.
- Average Occupancy Rate: Hampton Inn’s worldwide average occupancy in 2019 was 74.0%. Let’s assume a similar rate for a typical hotel in 2025.
- Soap Usage: Estimating slightly less than one bar/bottle per occupied room night.
- Cost per Soap Bar (Bulk): Ranging from $0.18 to $0.57 or more.
Calculation (for a 115-room hotel, mid point in the hotel size):
- Annual Occupied Room Nights: 115 rooms * 365 days * 0.74 occupancy = approximately 31,031 occupied room nights.
- Annual Soap Usage (estimated): Roughly 31,031 bars/bottles.
- Estimated Annual Soap Cost:
- Lower End: 31,031 * $0.20 = $6,206.20
- Higher End: 31,031 * $0.50 = $15,515.50