Ever wonder how that fancy soap ended up in your hotel bathroom? There's a decent chance John Hunter put it there.

Hunter runs Hunter Amenities International Ltd., a 44-year-old business that's essentially playing matchmaker for brands and hospitality companies. Think of it as Tinder for toiletries, except the relationships actually last and generate over $300 million in annual revenue.

From Vending Machines to Amenities Empire

Here's how it works: Hunter's company connects cosmetics, fragrance, and lifestyle brands with airlines, hotels, cruise ships, and gyms looking for products to offer guests. The brands get exposure in thousands of rooms. The hotels get products their guests actually want to steal. Everyone wins.

Take Chrissy Fichtl, who launched home fragrance brand Apotheke from her Brooklyn apartment in 2012. Today, her products sit in upscale boutiques and more than 100,000 hotel rooms from Cairo to Nashville. She estimates roughly 20% of soap sales come from these hotel partnerships. The best part? She's not doing the heavy lifting.

"I'm not pitching hotels. I'm not making product and shipping it and fulfilling it monthly and keeping up with all of the stock," Fichtl explained to Bloomberg. That's Hunter's job.

The math on exposure is pretty compelling. "If you're in even 50,000 rooms, you'll have 4 or 5 million guest impressions on your brand every year," Hunter told Bloomberg. That's a lot of potential customers trying your product while brushing their teeth.

How a Failed Idea Became a Fortune

Hunter didn't set out to become what he calls "the godfather of amenities." His original plan involved launching toiletry vending machines. When that flopped, he pivoted to partnering with airlines that wanted small branded items for travelers. Four decades later, Hunter Amenities distributes 45 brands across more than 100 countries.

One of the company's breakthrough moments came in 2004, pairing Bliss products with W Hotels. "One of those iconic ones where people said, 'I stay at the W, I love the Bliss products,'" Fichtl recalled to Bloomberg. "The first thing out of their mouth [was that they] loved the amenities."

So what does Hunter look for when scouting brands? Unique ingredients, compelling brand stories, and growing social media followings. The brands that stand out from the crowd, basically.

The Economics of "Tryvertising"

The financial arrangement might seem underwhelming at first glance. Brands typically earn just 5% to 6% of total sales, according to Bloomberg. But that misses the bigger picture.

Hunter calls it "tryvertising"—guests sample products during their stay, and if they like them, they buy them for home. The hotel room becomes a testing ground with a captive, often affluent audience.

Skincare company Beekman 1802 provides a textbook case study. Nearly ten years ago, hotel chain Andaz started using one of Beekman's scents, Fresh Air, in its rooms. That scent is now featured across numerous Beekman products and has been picked up by Princess Cruise Lines and Etihad Airlines. Brent Ridge, co-founder of Beekman 1802, told Bloomberg that Fresh Air has become one of the company's top sellers, though pinning down exact revenue from Hunter Amenities deals proves difficult.

"You're in front of the customer in a very intimate setting where you have no other competition," Ridge explained to Bloomberg. "That's a really hard thing to find."

And he's right. Where else can a brand get someone to test their product in such a personal context? You're literally using their soap in the shower. If it works, you remember it. If it's good enough, you hunt it down later.

That's the genius of Hunter's business model. He's not just distributing products—he's creating millions of intimate brand experiences every year, one hotel bathroom at a time.