Soaps and Shower Gel

[mi casa]

We will be supplying soaps and shower gel from this year to our guests. Any suggestions where I can source these items. Don't know if I should buy the shower gel in bulk and fill containers or just buy branded bottles in the supermarket. If filling containers where can I get some nice ones. Up to our eyes and ears getting ready for 'the season'!

[greenbarn]

We get the bulk refill containers and labelled dispenser bottles from Bath House, but may not be much use to you where you are. It's infinitely cheaper than buying retail bottles, and we just top the bottles up at changeover. It's top quality stuff, with a bottle retailing locally at about £11; I don't know the cost to us off the top of my head, but it works out at far less than £1 a complete refill. No brainer.

I've just had a look at Out of Eden and they do bulk quantities of stuff labelled Cole and Lewis - much cheaper (although I don't know the retail price if you buy a bottle in a department store) but looks the part. IIRC Out of Eden ship within Europe.

Edit: www.thebathhouseshop.com
www.outofeden.co.uk/category/liquid-soa ... nd-lotions

[Casscat]

I have the Out of Eden stuff and it's pretty good. The soap dispensers came from T K Maxx. I don't provide shower gel other than in the little hospitality packs (again from Out of Eden) which contain minis of the usual bathroom basics.

[zebedee]

+1 for Out of Eden. You get a discount as well if you are rated byVisit England

[mi casa]

Thank you all for your help. Will log on to Out of Eden and I hope it will solve my problem. Once again LMH to the rescue.

[Sam V]

That's really useful. I too have wanted to supply a few little toiletries but all we coild find was pretty expensive. My manager lends me her macro card when I'm over but I've never found anything there. Instead I just asked her to supply hand wash in each bathroom and the kitchen and suggested from Continente. Their economy range is only about €1 a pop and very nice soap and maybe because it's 'nothing special' I'm less likely to have guests claim it as a freebie! However, I may see what Eden can supply and the shipping costs

[JaneV]

+2 for Out of Eden. I use the refillable Cole & Lewis and it's free of a lot of the main chemicals such as parabens. I used to buy the small sample bottles but much prefer refilling at every changeover. That way, the guests get a more generous supply of product and the small bottles can be too fiddly.

[Robin S]

+1 to http://www.outofeden.co.uk/

[Nightowl]

I use out of Eden Cole and Lewis. I bought the half litre (or whatever they are) pump bottles and also the 5 litre cans and I refill the pump bottles on the changeover. I've had to water down the conditioner as it's so thick you can't actually pour it into the neck of the bottle, but that's fine, it makes it go further...

Guests do use them and they are far cheaper than buying the individual small bottles, which people often use half of and then they get thrown away.

[Jenny C]

We use White Company products - they look and smell gorgeous, and are definitely a selling point. I provide shampoo/conditioner, shower gel and a soap. Yes they are expensive, but I prefer them to refillable containers.

The White Company don't do a bubble bath in travel sizes (and I can never understand why this is so rarely provided!) so I put a full size good quality bubble bath in the bathroom and refill as necessary.

[Guest]

[pepsipuss]

I now use Out of Eden soaps - my market is mainly short breaks, so 20g soaps are more than adequate

I would be interested to know if they actually use these, 7Aspire. I don't use soap anyway, preferring liquid, but even if I did use regular soap I would leave these untouched as my experience is that they are too small to be able to use them properly.

[Guest]

[mi casa]

Meant to reply sooner. The cost of delivery to Portugal is £28.61 per box up to 30 kilos. We went for the 40gr bars of soap (packmofn200) as most of our bookings this season are for two weeks. We also ordered shower gels and also bought a couple of 5 litre refills. Will wait and see if the guests have any comments. We head out again at the end of this month for a short family holiday so will be testing the product ourselves.

[Marta West]

Hi,

I use the hotel size soap bars that I buy at the factory store here in Portugal - Ach Brito www.achbrito.com; they come in packs of 40 I think end cost about 16cents a bar; always leave 3 in each bathroom for a 7 days stay.
I was thinking of getting shampoo and shower gel, I am still looking at it, but can get quite nice ones from those professional hairdresser shops that you can find in the shoppings; it comes in 5 litre bottles I think...