How to Start a Cigar Program in Your Resort

Resorts ask me about cigars the same way every time. Somebody at the pool asked for one, the front desk had nothing, and now the GM wants a program by high season. The good news is that the build is small. A workable resort cigar program starts with 8 to 15 SKUs, one properly sized humidor, and a reorder rhythm that matches your occupancy curve. MDC’s invoice corpus covers 24,334 product-linked line items from April 19, 2016 through October 8, 2026, and the resort accounts in that data behave in predictable ways once a program is running.

Here is how to build one that does not die in the shoulder season.

What does a resort need to start a cigar program?

A resort cigar program needs four things: a humidification unit sized to the volume, an opening assortment of 8 to 15 SKUs, a state tobacco retail license, and one trained point of sale. Most resorts start with a lobby or lounge case, then add poolside service in year two once the top five sellers are known.

Do not start with a wide assortment. The temptation is to stock a wall, because a wall looks impressive. A wall also ties up money in slow SKUs and gives your staff nothing to recommend. MDC’s active catalog carries 5,816 products, 5,808 of them cigars, and a resort does not need more than a fraction of a percent of that to run a strong program. Pick a mild, a medium, a full, and a flagship, then build out from what actually moves.

For layout and equipment decisions, our humidor setup guide covers sizing, seasoning and placement in detail.

How many cigars should a resort open with?

Open with 150 to 300 cigars across 8 to 15 SKUs. A 200-room resort at 70% occupancy with no prior cigar history will usually clear 40 to 90 cigars a month in the first quarter. Stocking three months of that at opening gives you sales data without stranding inventory in a case that nobody has learned to sell from yet.

Box size matters more than operators expect. The most common box size in MDC’s catalog is 20 cigars, covering 37.8% of all cigar SKUs, which is a clean unit for a resort case. Packs of 10 or fewer account for 16.7% of cigar SKUs, and those smaller packs are the right tool for testing a new line or carrying a higher-price option without committing to a full box.

A 20-count like the Rocky Patel Gold Label Robusto works as a house medium. A 10-count such as the Aksum Claro Toro works as a low-risk test.

What kind of humidor does a resort cigar program need?

Size the humidor to roughly three times your monthly volume. A countertop or glass-front display holding 300 to 500 cigars covers most resorts and runs about $2,500 to $5,000 installed with active humidification. A walk-in holding 2,000 or more only makes sense above about 250 cigars sold per month, which is club territory, not opening territory.

Hold the case at 68 to 70% relative humidity and 68 to 70°F. In Florida, Arizona and the Caribbean, the real enemy is the HVAC, not the outdoor air. A case sitting in a lobby return draft will drop to 58% and nobody will notice until a guest cracks a wrapper.

Can a resort sell cigars at the pool or on the beach?

Yes, with a transport humidor and a short list. A poolside or cabana cart should carry 8 to 12 cigars at a time in a sealed travel case, restocked from the main humidor twice a day. Cigars left in open air at 90°F and 45% relative humidity lose smokable condition in about four hours, so the cart is a delivery vehicle, not storage.

Poolside service changes the assortment. Guests outdoors in heat want shorter smokes, not 60-minute toros. Keep one robusto, one corona and one flavored or mild option on the cart, and keep the long, expensive sticks in the lounge case where a guest will sit with a drink.

A poolside cart carries roughly a third of the SKUs a lobby case does, typically 8 to 12 against 30 or more.

Service model	SKUs carried	Typical daily volume	Best box size	Restock cadence
Lobby or lounge case	15 to 30	3 to 8 cigars	20-count	Weekly audit
Poolside cart	8 to 12	4 to 12 cigars	10-count	Twice daily
Beach or cabana butler	4 to 6	2 to 6 cigars	10-count	Per shift

Which cigar sizes sell best at a resort?

Robustos and toros in the 5 to 6 inch range with a 50 to 54 ring gauge carry most resort volume. Across 4,199 cigars in MDC’s catalog with recorded measurements, the average is 5.77 inches long with a 51.6 ring gauge, and that average sits almost exactly where resort guests buy. Stock the middle of the curve first, then add outliers.

Guest mix drives the rest. A golf resort skews toward 6-inch toros bought in pairs for the back nine. A beach property skews shorter. A conference property sees spikes of 20 to 40 cigars on a single banquet night and almost nothing on the Tuesday after.

How do seasonal swings change a resort cigar order?

Order to occupancy, not to the calendar. A seasonal resort running 85% occupancy in peak and 30% in shoulder should cut cigar orders by roughly half, not by two thirds, because the remaining guests at a quiet property buy at a higher per-guest rate. Build peak inventory 60 days ahead of the season opening so the humidor has time to stabilize.

The failure mode I see most is ordering heavy in March for a season that ends in May, then sitting on open boxes through a humid summer. A well-maintained humidor will hold product for months, but a case that gets unplugged during a renovation will not. More on hospitality-specific buying in our resort and hotel page.

How often should a resort reorder cigars?

Plan on a reorder roughly every 110 days per SKU. Across 1,188 repeat purchases of the same cigar by the same venue in MDC’s invoice data, the median gap between orders is 110 days and the average is 160 days. Resorts with poolside service run tighter, often 60 to 75 days on the top three SKUs, while the long tail stretches past six months.

Set a reorder trigger at 25% of original quantity rather than a date. A 20-count box hits reorder at five cigars left.

Does a resort need a license to sell cigars?

Yes. Every state requires a tobacco retail license to sell cigars, and federal law sets 21 as the minimum purchase age nationwide. If your resort sells cigars, the property is a tobacco retailer under FDA retail rules, including age verification and the required warning statements described on the FDA cigar page.

Importing on your own adds federal permitting through TTB, which is why most resorts buy domestically from a distributor instead. Industry context and member resources are available through the Cigar Association of America.

What price range should a resort stock?

Stock three price bands and keep the top band small. MDC’s catalog runs from $1.00 to $1999.00 per unit, but a resort case works best with the bulk of inventory in the middle and two or three premium options for celebration purchases. Anniversary and wedding guests reach for the expensive box, and one or two of those a week justifies carrying it.

A 25-count workhorse like Perla del Mar Corojo Robusto anchors the everyday band. Something like Crowned Heads La Coalicion Sublime fills the top. Browse the full assortment in the shop, and if you are buying for a property for the first time, read the wholesale cigar buyer’s guide first.

Sources and method: figures come from MDC’s invoice corpus of 24,334 product-linked line items spanning April 19, 2016 to October 8, 2026, and the active catalog of 5,816 products, 5,808 of them cigars, pulled October 9, 2026. Dimension averages reflect 4,199 cigars with recorded measurements. Reorder timing reflects 1,188 repeat purchases of the same cigar by the same venue. Regulatory points cite FDA and TTB primary pages.

If you are sizing an opening order for a property, tell us about the venue and we will put an assortment together.

Written by Peter Roth. Last reviewed October 9, 2026.