TARRYTOWN, NEW YORK—Nightfood, Inc., the company pioneering the sleep-friendly nighttime snacking category, believes the hotel industry has an immediate opportunity to support wellness and better sleep by making sleep-friendly snacks available in lobby marketplaces to satisfy guests’ nighttime cravings.
“Hotels have been letting their snack business undermine their sleep business, interfering with their commitment to the well-being of their guests,” said Nightfood CEO Sean Folkson. “What you eat before bed matters. Hotel companies have spent billions in their quest to give guests the best sleep possible—making significant capital investments upgrading beds, pillows, and mattresses and outfitting rooms with black-out curtains and white noise machines. But when that same guest goes to grab a snack in the lobby shop, they’re met almost exclusively with high-sugar, high-fat snacks that can interfere with sleep quality and leave guests feeling remorseful.”
Consumer research reveals that over 80 percent of Americans snack regularly at night, resulting in an estimated 700 million nighttime snack occasions weekly, and an annual spend on night snacks of over $50 billion. The most popular choices are cookies, chips, candy, and ice cream. Recent research confirms such snacks, in addition to being generally unhealthy, can impair sleep, partly due to excess fat and sugar consumed before bed.
Nightfood, the first company focused on looking at the nighttime snacking problem, is working with hotels to provide better options for their guests’ biologically hardwired nighttime cravings. Nightfood’s sleep-friendly snacks are formulated by sleep and nutrition experts to contain less sugar, less fat, and fewer calories (which can all impair sleep quality when consumed before bed), along with ingredients and nutrients that research suggests can support nighttime relaxation and better sleep quality. The brand’s ice cream pints entered national hotel distribution after an extensive and successful pilot test with a leading global hospitality company and are now available in select locations of major hotel chains including Courtyard by Marriott, Hyatt House, Holiday Inn Express, Residence Inn, Springhill Suites, Fairfield Inn, and more.
Make Sleep-Friendly Snacks Available
Folkson believes that any hotel selling snacks should take advantage of the opportunity to make sleep-friendly snacks available for their guests. Industry leaders are starting to agree.
“We don’t expect hotels to stop selling traditional cookies, chips, candy, and ice cream, but we do urge them to aggressively add healthier and sleep-friendly versions for today’s wellness-focused travelers. By offering sleep-friendly snacks, hotels are saying, ‘We support our guests with every detail, and at every touchpoint,” said Jill Dean Rigsbee, CEO of iDEAL Hospitality Partners Group.
“Similar to the days of the Hotel Bed Wars, we know hotels are sensitive to being perceived as falling behind the competition,” added Folkson. “Unlike the major capital investment required to equip rooms for better sleep, offering sleep-friendly snacks requires no capital expenditure. It’s a quick, easy, and inexpensive way for hotels across all service levels and categories to support wellness for everyday travelers.”
Richard Garcia, Remington Hotel’s Senior Vice President of Food & Beverage agrees, “At Remington, we recognize sleep as a key pillar of wellness. Giving guests the option to choose a sleep-friendly nighttime snack is an easy way for hotels to make an important impact.”
No Sacrificing of Revenue or Profit
Even better news for the hospitality industry is that hotels don’t need to sacrifice revenue or profit when they add sleep-friendly snacks to their lobby shop assortments in support of guest wellness and sleep.
At the end of 2022, the company announced that Nightfood ice cream pints outsold both Ben & Jerry’s and Baskin Robbins in a recently completed controlled test in leading hotels. Across the nine-week test period, all pints had a selling price of $8.50. Nightfood sold 43 percent of all pint volume in those hotels, while Ben & Jerry’s sold 34 percent and Baskin Robbins sold 23 percent. Independent Impulsify point-of-sale data confirms Nightfood’s strong sales performance, showing Nightfood capturing 38 percent of all pint volume when going head-to-head with Haagen Dazs, despite Nightfood having a higher average retail price.
Nightfood’s launch into the hospitality sector is well-timed considering the focus on wellness currently sweeping the industry.
“The bottom line is that what you eat before bed matters. And in a business where sleep quality and wellness are so important, now is the time for hotels to reevaluate the nighttime snack choices they make available for their guests,” concluded Folkson.
For hotel decision-makers wanting more information about offering Nightfood sleep-friendly snacks in your hotel lobby shop, contact iDEAL Hospitality Partners Group at (984) 235-5855 or jill@idealhpgroup.com.
