The Hotel industry has a high consumption rate of cleaning and personal care supplies such as soap, detergents, tissue paper etc. so if you are looking for a business with a high turnover rate, then hotel supplies business is the right one.
One of the sure paths to business success is to provide a product or service that is in high demand, with a frequent reorder rate. Positioning yourself as a vendor to supply these essentials to them will prove to be very profitable.
How do you start?
Market survey
- Make a list of all the hotels in your area. The list should be up to 20 hotels at least. This is to make room for hotels that may already have a supplier and would turn you down.
Find Your supplier and create your price list
- Find a wholesaler in your area who stocks cleaning materials and get their price list for cleaning supplies.
- Find the cost of a storage location and delivery cost
- Based on the prices given by the supplier create your price list with a profit margin that covers your storage cost and delivery cost on a simple PDF document. If you would like to know how to properly price your products, read this article on how to do so.
Find your customer
- Armed with your price list, start contacting the hotels on your list. You may begin by calling them on the phone, for most hotels their phone number is available on the internet.
- Be prepared with a speech and a sales pitch to convince them to patronize you. You would most likely speak to their front desk officer first, so try to get access to their admin department or manager.
- Offer to send them your price list so they can review and compare with their current supplier.
- You could also offer free delivery, to sweeten the deal.
Pro tip
- To eliminate the cost of storage space and inventory, only purchase the supplies when the customers have ordered. So, you can pick-up the goods from the supplier and drop off at the hotel on the same day.
- To gain the confidence and access to bigger hotels you will need to have your business properly registered and have sales documents such as invoices and receipts. This is because corporate hotels prefer to deal with a well structured and professional business.
There are several free invoicing software available to make it cheaper and easier for you. Here is a list of some of them.
- Here is a list of items that all hotels purchase
- Tissue Paper
- Mini bathing soap
- Bleach
- Detergent
- Air freshener
- Insecticides
- Floor cleaner
- Glass cleaner
- Mops
- Rags
- Dustbin bags
Love this business idea? Before you get started, do this first!
Read our article on how to set up a successful business in Nigeria.
