Hotel Gift Bags-Yes or No?

We just did ours this weekend, and the total Costco trip (and bags/stickers purchased separately) was about $150-$180. We are going to do sixty bags and our breakdown was: waters, Pringles, goldfish, Advil, tums, granola bar, peanut butter crackers, fruit snacks gum, twizzlers, tic tacs (mint to be labels my mom insisted). We basically purchased whatever brand had 60 or more per box so we were only buying one box of each. Ex 84 fruit snacks of minions for $6.99 vs $10.99 for adult looking welches in packs of 45. I told FH it didn't matter they were minions.

Eta: we included a welcome note with timelines for shuttle/events (after party and brunch) and then included a list of attractions and restaurants near by.

Gift bags are nice and all, but let's be honest will your guests actually use the items in them? If it's something like food or water that's fine but I do not need to take home more than I came with, especially if you are already giving out favors!

We are doing them. It's really not that big of an expense.

30 bags on amazon- $15

Advil packets- $9

2 cases of water- $7

Chips- $20 (max estimate)

Cookies- $20 (max estimate)

Total= $71. Thats only $2,36/bag. To me, that's worth it to provide my guests who are spending hundreds to come to my wedding to give them some snacks and water. Doesn't need to be anything fancy.

Thank you, @WWLynnie, I love the way those came out!!!

@JGCT-I wouldn't care about minions either, just gimme the fruit snacks! hahahah. I don't think that cost is bad at all for all the bags, seeing as though the room itself is 189 for a night!

@MrsG, I agree. That is super cheap and I know from past weddings, I appreciated the crackers the next morning when I'm hungover hahahahha

Yeah, our rooms our $159/night and my parents insisted on doing bags and brunch the next day to ensure everyone can enjoy themselves with us picking up tabs where we can. Like I said, just look at quantity per box. There were a few brands that looked cheaper but had like 1/2 the amount as the other. My mom also go stuff from Walmart now that they are trying to competent with Amazon. Definitely can be done for about $3 per bag. Just account for production consumption, I looked over a few times and FH and my dad had boxes of nerds missing. Hahaha

I'm doing them for OOT guests, although I don't have nearly the amount OP does. Maybe 15 tops.

It's a nice jester, if it's something you don't want to do out of cost, consider making up a general typed up thank you note with a list of suggestions of places to eat and places to check out and have the front desk hand them to the guests at check in.

I have guests who are driving up from out of state so I'm making more of like a road trip bag. Just filling it with snacks that if they don't want to eat then, they can take them on the road. I'm getting everything from Costco and BJs Wholesale. Nobody has to go all out, I feel like the simpler the better.

I know I am in the minority but I LOVE gift bags. It is so welcoming to come to a hotel from OOT and get a little gift bag. I also use everything in them--who doesn't use advil and water? My OOT guests numbers will be about 90% as well and I will definitely be providing a welcome bag and a little token of appreciation.

I've never gotten a welcome bag and didn't bat an eye. I don't really expect the hotel to be a part of the wedding.

My aunts made mine. About 10 people kept asking if they could help by making hospitality bags for OOT folks and I finally caved and said yes because I thought they were dumb but people wanted to help. My guests liked them. They aren't necessary but people appreciate them.

We're not doing anyway. There are plenty amenities in the hotel already plus they charge per bag to deliver.

I think we will be doing them. I always think its fun to recieve regional snacks in them.

We will probably put local cookies and chips into ours.

I just emailed my hotel contact to ask about it. Any time I've ever gotten one, it was when I checked in. They see on the reservation that you are part of a certain group and hand the bag over. Do they really charge for that? I don't need them delivered to the rooms.

I'm not doing them , just seem pointless as guest will bring their own stuff. Plus everyone uses their phones nowadays to look up things to do , restaurants and what not.

Hotel welcome bags are something that can be done VERY cheaply and yet are a really nice touch! We bought white bags from Michaels - they have a variety of colors but these are the cheapest I found. I'm sure you could also find bags cheaply at the $ Store or online somewhere. We filled them with water bottles, snack chip bags (we bought directly from Utz online), a pack of gum (bought in bulk from Amazon), Advil (bought in bulk from Amazon, they come in packs of 2), and mini candy bars. We printed up the shuttle schedule and recommendations for local restaurants on a piece of paper and printed them at home. I had the stickers and door tags made on Etsy and again, they were not expensive, but you could easily skip them!

@sullivan our hotel said we can put how many bags to hand out next to an excel I can run from the room-block website. Well hand out extras to those sharing or those with kids. I also had a few book outside the block so I'll have their names handwritten at the bottom so they know to give them to those guests.

I've never been to a wedding with a gift bag so I would certainly not side eye you for not having them! In our case, we are getting married at a hotel, but only a portion of our guests are actually staying there because it's a September wedding in Salem and everything was booked up. I don't want to coordinate providing them at several different hotels and I would feel bad just giving them to the 40 or so guests who happened to be able to get a room.

@JG, I just heard back from my hotel. She said to just give the bags to them when we get there and they will hand out to any guests who check in. If there are specific bags for specific people, just to mark their names down. Free. So easy.

I wanted to do them, but we ended up not doing an official hotel block (the rates were terrible) and instead suggesting hotels to our guests. Since we're not sure where everyone is going to end up, we figured it was best to skip the bags.

I think they're just fun more than necessary. Makes me feel included to get one