Vodka, doorknobs, and scents: What hotels will brand to sell to guests

The Amway Hotel Corporation in Michigan serves and sells its own line of salad dressings and salsas. The AKA properties have their own vodka and the Langham Hospitality Group offers its house-blend teas in 28 member hotels around the world.

Rohit Verma, a professor at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, said that hotels found these products attractive partly because they were a new source of revenue.

Hotels may also create items that will make a visit more of an “experience,” Professor Verma said, and those products need to be closely tied to the brand image. A luxury hotel may be able to sell bath salts, for example, while a hotel with a healthy-living theme may choose to sell yoga mats.