Small shops and café areas connected to a hotel’s lobby have become increasingly popular within the hospitality industry. The customers have become more accustomed to spending time within the hotel premises and not only in their hotel room. Cumulus Koskikatu hotel, located in the Tampere city center, also opened their own hotel lobby shop hotel lobby area. As the hotel lobby shop is still a relatively new addition to the hotel operations, very little research has been done in the terms of how to make it as profitable as possible and what kind of effects it has on the hotel reception employees who are responsible for the daily operations of the hotel lobby shop. The main purpose of the research was to develop ideas and methods which can help the hotel to increase the sales at the hotel lobby shop sector in the future.

The research was focused on the current status of the hotel lobby shop and the effects it has had on the reception employees so far. Quantitative research was conducted in order to determine the shop’s current status on each product sector and the potential alteration it could make in the product selection in the future. In order to collect qualitative data, a research was done and a survey was conducted among the reception employees. The data were used as a source of information in order to propose new external and internal marketing approaches for the hotel lobby shop.

The results of the research suggests that one of the biggest obstacles for the lobby shop has been the small amount of marketing which has been done so far. At the same time many of the respondents stated that at the moment operating the hotel lobby shop causes too much extra work and stress to the employees.

The findings of the research indicate that instead of making big alterations to the product selection of the shop, the management should be advised to pay closer attention and to put more resources into the marketing of the shop. With simple additions to the marketing strategy, the hotel lobby shop will be able to reach more customers and bring in more income to the hotel. Not only is the external marketing of the shop important, but the management of the hotel is also advised to direct more resources to the internal marketing of the company and possibly hire more employees in order to divide the existing workload. Also, by developing an improved tangible rewarding system the employees of the reception can become more motivated and work more productively and enjoy their work.