Cannabis-filled vending machines. CBD-stocked mini-bars. Even turndown pillow joints! These are just a few of the newly created offerings hotels in California are providing in an effort to lure marijuana smokers to their properties now that the state has become recreationally legal. And they’re just the start.
While some California hotels aren’t exactly sold on the idea of open cannabis consumption at their properties, others, like the Desert Hot Springs Inn in the Coachella Valley, are racing to cash in.
Just a couple of months after California legalized recreational marijuana use, the hotel began advertising itself as a cannabis-friendly destination where guests can freely smoke by the pool or vape in their hotel rooms. To innkeeper Jon Thatcher’s surprise, not only did business improve by more than 50%, but most of that business came from upper-income baby boomers.
“It was not your basement stoner crowd,” Thatcher told the Los Angeles Times.
Meanwhile, at the Hicksville Pines “Bud and Breakfast” in Idyllwild, business is up 30% since owner Morgan Night turned the quirky 10-room lodge into a cannabis-friendly destination. Beyond allowing on-site consumption, Night also added blacklight posters and munchie-filled vending machines to further entice the cannabis crowd.
“The vending machine loves it because it gets raided frequently,” said Night. “Overall it’s been great!”
In fact, the offerings were such a hit—with all pun intended—that Night decided to double-down on them by replacing the customary pillow mints with fully rolled joints in rooms at his other property, the Hicksville Trailer Palace & Artist Retreat in Joshua Tree.
“People like free stuff,” said Night, pointing out that it’s now legal in California to gift up to an ounce of cannabis to an adult over 21.
Indeed they do, especially when that “stuff” is cannabis. Many hotels are even going a step further by actually selling cannabis. As we covered not too long ago, The Standard in Hollywood is already selling CBD-infused lotions and gummies in their mini-bars thanks to a partnership with posh cannabis brand Lord Jones. And that’s not all. The trendy hotel chain is also looking to become the first hotel with an actual cannabis dispensary inside! Operated by Lord Jones, the shop will sell a wide range of cannabis and cannabis-related products, including an exclusive line of co-branded THC and CBD offerings.
Meanwhile, back at the Desert Hot Springs Inn, Thatcher envisions a greater role for cannabis at his properties as well. The hotel, which sits on nine acres of land that’s still mostly underdeveloped, already offers a mineral water pool, a hot tub, and even a massage room where guests can take advantage of a luxury rubdown—complete with cannabis extract oil! Of course that’s before they get together for a chill smoke session around the hotel’s fire pit, which just so happens to overlook the San Jacinto mountains. Thatcher hopes to expand on these offerings with an upscale, edibles-filled restaurant and even a “bud bar” for guests to enjoy, eventually turning his small nine-room motel into a full-on mini cannabis resort.
“It’s a big thing for them to come here and have the stigma of smoking be gone,” Thatcher said of his guests. “I haven’t had a problem renting out rooms.”
