Hotel Lobby Candle Blazes A Path To Growth

Luxury hotel stays are intended to be sensorially immersive experiences. Guests often plunk down for the the plush robes they get during them to repeat those lavish experiences at home. In recent years, hotels have enhanced the sensory swathing with signature scents that guests enjoy whiffs of as soon as they enter the lobby. 

Traveling the world as a Town & Country editor, Lindsay Silberman fell in love with the signature scents of the hotels she visited. “I would always find myself going up to the concierge or going up to the reception desk and asking where I could buy the scent,” she recounts. “It was always like, ‘Oh, we don’t know or we don’t sell it,” or ‘Oh, it’s a brand that’s not available to the public,’ or ‘Check the boutique, and maybe they have it.’ There was never a clear answer, and I always thought that was really strange.”

After Silberman left the media business in 2018, the idea of starting a luxury candle brand inspired by iconic hotels occurred to her, but she didn’t pursue it immediately. Then, the pandemic happened, and people longed for the travel they weren’t doing. “I really missed travel,” says Silberman. “During that period, I think we were all holding onto anything that felt indulgent or relaxing. For me, that was always candles.”

Silberman’s brand Hotel Lobby Candle hit the market in October 2020 with limited quantities of two scents. She self-funded the launch and relied on a manufacturer that could produce premium, paraffin-free candles under a 10,000-unit minimum. She only announced the brand a week before its launch, figuring she’d have enough inventory to sell through the holiday season, when she’d hopefully score gift guide press placements.

Silberman drastically underestimated the demand. Hotel Lobby Candle’s initial run sold out in 24 minutes. Silberman restocked its inventory as quickly as possible—and the restock subsequently sold out in two hours. Silberman says, “After that we pressed pause to think about what launches we’ll have coming up and plan the inventory better. As of January 2021 is when we started strategizing and turning it into a full-blown business.”

Two years later, Hotel Lobby Candle is full blown and thriving. Silberman reports that the brand’s sales grew 30% in 2022, and she’s conservatively projecting they’ll grow 30% in 2023. The brand has introduced 11 scented candles inspired by 5-star hotel experiences priced at $56 each, including Signature, Spa, Linen and Island. This week, Hotel Lobby Candle will release branded apparel such as a baseball hat embroidered with the phrase “Candle Snob” for $40. 

The brand has forged a partnership with Neiman Marcus, but the majority of its sales are via direct-to-consumer distribution on its website. The Neiman Marcus deal came about by chance. Silberman didn’t even have retail on her radar. “A follower of mine was a buyer at Neimans, and she reached out to me after she saw what was happening with the launch,” she recalls. “A month later we were in Neiman.” 

Silberman says she’s looking to selectively expand Hotel Lobby Candle into additional retailers as “there are a lot of people who want to be able to go in store and smell the candles.” Currently, there are only seven Neiman Marcus doors where they can do that.  

For its first product collaboration, Hotel Lobby Candle has teamed up with private jet company Wheels Up on a candle with a scent that’s a take on a “new jet smell” as opposed to a new car smell. On Wheels Up jets, Silberman says, “The seats are this gorgeous leather, and they’re serving champagne, there’s mahogany wood on the plane interiors. We took that to our fragrance house as the notes that we want to lead with.”

Several companies prior to Wheels Up reached out to collaborate with Hotel Lobby Candle, but Silberman held off. She says she seeks collaborations that are “a little unusual or not as obvious and that also would help elevate our brand and get us in front of new customers that are our target demographic.” When Wheels Up expressed that it wanted to work with Hotel Lobby Candle, it suited Silberman’s collaboration criteria perfectly. 

The collaboration candle originally was meant to be gifted just to Wheels Up members, but Silberman felt Hotel Lobby Candle’s broader audience would adore the scent, too. She introduced it on the brand’s site, and it sold out in less than an hour. The brand will restock a limited amount of the Wheels Up collaboration candle to sell on its site in the near future. After that, it will only be available as a gift to Wheels Up clients. 

Silberman is planning other limited runs in Hotel Lobby Candle’s future. In May, a summer destination-focused limited-edition product will drop. “It feels so seasonal that it wouldn’t necessarily make sense for us to have it in the fall or winter,” says Silberman, mentioning she views Hotel Lobby Candle’s scents as being part of a library. Some will be archived as time goes on and perhaps be brought back at a later date. 

Hotel Lobby Candle remains self-funded. Silberman reports that she’s put “pretty much every dollar” that the brand has made back into the business. Early on in the venture, Silberman’s husband Matt Stevens quit his job to work on it full-time with Silberman. This month, it brought on board public relations professional Maria Malonoski as VP of marketing and brand partnerships.

While Silberman says Hotel Lobby Candle doesn’t currently need outside investment, she’s open to it and confirms that there’s been interest from venture capital investors in the brand. She says, “We’ve been having the beginning talks. We’re prepared if we do ever get to a point where we start entertaining those conversations.”

Silberman still cherishes visiting luxury hotels around the world. Recently, she visited a standout property in the United States. “In Aspen, there’s a lot of places I love, but we just stayed at The Jerome and that really knocked my socks off,” says Silberman. “I was just so inspired by this hotel, I felt like I was in a Wes Anderson movie. It was really a beautiful curation and really cool.”