A reader who stayed at the Wild Palms Hotel in Sunnyvale, California, which is part of Hyatt’s JdV brand, shared that the property appeared to be using JdV standard amenities in the bathroom – Jonathan Adler brand – but that the housekeeping carts had “bulk, industrial service jugs of DRIFT Hydrated Body Care.”
DRIFT is made and produced by Erwyn Products, a major hospitality industry distributor. They do not appear to carry Johnathan Adler. (JA hospitality amenities are supplied by La Bottega.)
Wild Palms’ own amenities page promises “Jonathan Adler Branded bath toiletries.” If they’re refilling JA‑labeled bottles with a different product, that’s a mismatch with the property’s marketing (and potentially a brand‑standards issue for JdV).
To be clear, the photos show these bulk toiletries actually being poured into the in-room bottles. The hotel could claim the DRIFT is for public restrooms or staff use. But they’re on a guest floor housekeeping cart, which makes that implausible.
Jonathan Adler is what I had during my stay at 50 Bowery in New York earlier this year… I think.
Earlier this year I wrote about Hyatt Regency San Francisco appearing to refill bulk shower toiletries in guest rooms with ‘mystery goop from a commercial ketchup jug’.
I have been concerned about these bulk dispensers in rooms replacing individual toiletry bottles to save money for a long time. There are 5 issues with them.
- Authenticity While some upscale hotels in China have been known to distribute counterfeit branded toiletries even in individual bottles to save money, it’s far more likely that you’re getting what’s on the bottle when it’s in the bottle versus just refilled into a branded package on the wall. You don’t know what you’re really getting when you don’t see the package.
- Security Previous hotel guests might find it funny to put something other than shampoo or bath gel in the bottles, or to mix them up. For instance, someone replaced the soap in dispensers at the Detroit airport with bodily fluid and you don’t know who was staying in your room before you. Some hotels use tamper proof mounting on the walls. Many don’t. Or the mounting is left unlocked.
- Germs You should not believe that the dispensers themselves get thoroughly cleaned and sterilized between guests. Here’s a National Institutes of Health study on bacterial contamination of bulk-soap-refillable dispensers.
- Availability Housekeeping just doesn’t refill these, the way it’s obvious when a bottle has been opened or is missing.
I stayed at the same Marriott Courtyard two weeks in a row where I was assigned the same room both times. My bath gel was empty throughout my first stay, and it was still empty a week later.
- Experience. It’s not a premium experience. There’s no ‘take away’ to remember the stay.
Indeed I use shampoo and bath gel at home that I discovered at a hotel, I imagine many of you do too.
Readers sometimes question whether I’m too cynical, thinking that hotels would refill these branded bottles with something cheaper. But they keep doing it.
Secrets in Cancun had Le Labo bottles but they were filled with what smelled like the Hyatt Regency standard brand. I called and complained, housekeeping came with bottles that were actually Le Labo (which is a very unique smell). They claimed it was a mistake.
Busted! Is anyone surprised that this sort of thing would happen?
Gary, what soap do you bring with you to restaurants, airports, etc to ensure you don’t deal with numbers 2 and 3 on your list above when washing your hands, or is it just hotels where you worry about that? Do you use a small bottle of liquid soap, or is there a good travel container for bar soap?
Naw, Gary, keep your cynicism alive; I like when you call out these jokers.
Your continued obsession with someone potentially “placing body fluids” into these hotel dispensers is odd. I like these larger bottles better than little bottles or soap, because one does not run out of supplies.
Ever since Marriott changed to weirdly scented (to me) toiletries about 10-15 years ago, I started to pack my own… and will pull them out if I have the slightest concern about the provided products. As you correctly state, we are not a brand’s customer… we are the product for the hotel management company behind most of the hotels.
Thank you for calling this out – I hope Hyatt starts compliance efforts
In the food industry, we have a saying: “The label is the law”. It’s too bad that there are no such restrictions on commercial toiletry items. However, if they’re advertising Jonathan Adler and they’re providing something in bulk that clearly isn’t, that opens them up for a class action suit.
Since I dislike liquid soap for body washing, and I like my regular shampoo, I bring my own bar soap and shampoo. Problem solved.
This is the kind of $h1t that was bound to happen when hotels and idiot legislative bodies decided that single-serve packaged toiletries were evil and ungreen. Of course, that was never the issue. And hotels went “green” because they could be cheap. And this is more evidence of that motivation. Glad that these guys were busted, though I am sure that they are very far from alone.
And those reusable containers are prone to not being properly maintained, leading to empty and/or filthy products coming out of them. Not to mention some of the gross things that people can do to them for kicks. Give me the little shampoos and soaps any day!
@stogieguy7 — Naw, this is just the hotel being cheap; it’s not an indictment of attempting better policies on climate, pollution, etc. What’s the ‘TDS’ equivalent of hating the environment? The “some of the gross things that people can do to them for kicks” which Gary likes, too, is silly, guys. Like, I try to not ‘yuck’ someone’s ‘yum,’ (or ‘yuck’ someone’s ‘yuck’?), but get your minds outta the gutter.