What I Learned About Selling Ice Cream at Pascha Bay

Sometimes the problem isn't your product. It's where – and how – you sell it.

Many years ago, I worked at Blue Village Pascha Bay near Alanya, Turkey, when the hotel was part of Star Tour's Blue Village concept.

The hotel had invested in a brand-new ice cream freezer. It looked great and was placed at one of the bars. There was even signage telling guests where they could buy ice cream.

There was just one problem.

Almost nobody bought any.

Not because guests didn't like ice cream.

Not because the quality was poor.

And certainly not because the price was wrong.

The problem was much simpler.

It was over 35°C.

Guests had settled into their sunbeds, were relaxing by the enormous pool or reading a book under an umbrella. Asking them to leave their spot, walk across the pool area, stand in line at the bar and then return with a melting ice cream was simply asking too much.

The hotel had invested in the product.

But not in the guest journey.

We Changed One Thing

Instead of waiting for guests to come to the ice cream...

...we decided to bring the ice cream to the guests.

We invested in a small mobile ice cream cart.

Every hour, one member of the bar team walked through the pool area with the cart, offering free tasting samples to guests.

Something interesting happened immediately.

Children became excited.

Parents started asking about flavours.

People who had no intention of buying ice cream suddenly wanted one.

Within a very short time, sales increased dramatically.

Instead of selling only a handful of ice creams, the hotel suddenly sold hundreds of ice creams per day.

The product had not changed.

The guests had not changed.

Only the way we delivered the experience.

The Lesson

Hotels often focus on improving products.

Sometimes the biggest opportunity is improving how guests discover them.

Ask yourself:

• Are we asking guests to come to us?
• Or are we bringing the experience to them?
• What products are "hidden" because guests never pass by them?
• Where do guests actually spend their time?

Small operational changes can create surprisingly large commercial results.

Could This Work in Your Hotel?

Absolutely.

The same thinking can be applied to:

• Coffee tasting around the pool
• Fresh fruit carts
• Cold towels on hot afternoons
• Smoothies
• Mocktails
• Local specialities
• Afternoon snacks
• Spa treatments introduced with small demonstrations
• Evening dessert sampling before dinner

When guests experience something first, buying becomes a natural next step.

How We Help Hotels

At We Help Hotels, we spend time observing how guests actually behave—not how we think they behave.

Sometimes a hotel doesn't need another investment.

It simply needs someone to watch, ask the right questions and redesign small moments in the guest journey.

Because the biggest opportunities are often already there. They just need to be moved a little closer to the guest.

Call us for advice, how to implement the service or just book us for a meeting at your hotel to crunch the numbers. 

The picture is from Pascha Bay in Alanya and modified with help of AI to illustrate the case and happening at the time.