Hyatt has announced that they are copying IHG and Marriott in eliminating single use plastic toiletries as soon as possible but company-wide by June 2021. They’re doing this instead of recycling the plastics and instead of using biodegradable single use packaging.
- It’s unhygienic. Bulk toiletry bottles are rarely cleaned properly and thoroughly by housekeeping, and are more likely to be tampered with despite use of locks to make tampering more difficult. I’ve documented both phenomenon extensively.
- It encourages use of counterfeit products. Do you expect any hotel in China will use legitimate branded products when the guest doesn’t even see the refill bottle?
- They’re more likely to be left empty. This has already happened to me on multiple occasions.
Hyatt Regency Lake Washington
The choice isn’t between the environment and convenience, ti’s cost savings dressed in environmental guilt just like dropping daily housekeeping at the Hyatt Regency Seattle, an expensive labor market. There are alternatives that allow hotels to offer environmentally friendly packaging and single use hygienic alternatives.
Hotels also give up the emotional branding element take away toiletries provide. And it will likely change the way many of us adopt hotel toiletries for use at home. I first discovered Aesop at the Park Hyatt Tokyo and that’s what I use in my own shower.
Toiletries are such a powerful marketing tool that Hyatt used to encourage you to steal theirs. That effort is being tossed.
Hyatt will also discourage use of plastic water bottles by providing water stations (that I expect will rarely ever be cleaned) for guests to refill their own reusable bottles. Oddly, one of the few improvements we got when World of Hyatt revamped elite benefits was that elites receive a bottle of water daily.
Perhaps just do similar to room makeup. If you want to forego individual toiletries you get an extra 500 points (or whatever number of points the hotel decides) per stay. If not you can still get the individual bottles but forego the points. This way people have to consider individual trade offs but still preserves choice.
I also agree with Gary. I travel very light so having to bring extra liquids along is a hassle. It’s not a problem leaving the country because of TSA-Pre, but coming back I frequently have all my toiletries examined by security. I also agree with the “yuck” factor. As a former B&B owner, I know just how difficult it is to keep a bathroom pristine. Those bulk amenity dispensers are filled with little nooks & crevices that are just plain hard to clean, which is why I tried them for a while and ultimately took them out… they’re gross and I had a couple of occasions where drunken idiots thought it would be fun to fill them with beer or swap the contents as a prank. Who is going to swap the contents of a teeny bottle?
Guess Gary will have to like Hilton more since they haven’t announced a similar change (YET) as all the other major chains are going this route
WWIII has Started . Gary is now going to have to go to Motel 6 to get his single use bottles that pollute the earth.
None of your arguments stands. All wrong.
You white pig.
Gary, you bring up China and counterfeit products. I agree, that’s a real problem, but just how far are you willing to go with that? I have, on more than one occasion, observed counterfeit alcohol being poured from name brand bottles in China and Vietnam. Once, on close inspection, I saw that the bottle of Campari I’d been poured was obviously a fraud. Frankly, I am more comfortable putting counterfeit shampoo in my hair than I am ingesting counterfeit food or booze.
When your child is older, I hope they’ll bring you around.
ok boomer
If Hyatt really wanted to lessen the use of harmful plastics while not diminishing the customer experience, they would either use biodegradable plastics for the containers or switch to something like waxed paper. Their current plan looks like them being cheap while pretending to care about the environment.
“Environmental guilt” is an apt term. The same people who experience it are those that won’t wipe their butt after a dump and blow their nose on their shirt sleeve (no need to cut down trees to make toilet paper or tissues).
It is commonly thought you can save trees by not using paper. Paradoxically, the opposite is likely true. Tree companies like Weyerhaeuser grow trees (ie managed forests) like farmers grow corn on private land. These trees are used to make paper. If you used less paper, there less need (read less cash) for tree companies to plant more trees. If there is no profit from growing trees, they will use the land for other uses, which probably means cutting down trees.
If you do not believe me, google “trees grown for paper”.
@DFWSteve: Sheryl Crow famously said that people should only use one sheet of toilet paper a visit. I am wondering if she smells.
Personally, I find sneezing into the sneeze disgusting. It means that your clothes will be germ depositories. During flu season, maybe damp. Hope they use hot water and bleach to clean their clothes. Probably not.
I agree. It is gross. It isn’t about germs, it’s about how disgusting humans are. Id rather the earth burn than touch somebody’s feces, urine, saliva, or, even worse, semen. I’ll just buy small bottles in bulk and throw them away every stay. This move is so disappointing, and reeks of PC virtue signaling. These dispensers are so down market they are really going to impact the marketability of PH vs other good brands. If you have to roll them out please leave them in the middle class brands and below.
Gary: I seriously think that the definition of “disgusting” is not only subjective, but an overkill in this case.
I’m sure you’re aware that:
1) Overweight people who are uncomfortable with themselves (like you) are the most like to be germophobes.
and 2) Most people would qualify your looks and your being grossly overweight (as you are) as being “disgusting” as well.
People in glass houses shouldn’t thrown stones, tub of lard.
Good travels! 😀