A guest at Marriott’s Courtyard Battle Creek in Michigan discovered lewd scribble on the wall-mounted toiletries that was presumably left by a previous guest. At least that’s what I am going to pretend that it is.
Housekeeping either doesn’t clean and refill the bottles, or saw it and didn’t care enough to change them out when turning the room. Since the guest reports that showing a photo to the front desk elicited a shrug, either option seems equally likely.
Lookie what I was greeted with when I hopped into the shower at the courtyard Battle Creek Michigan today! I told the front desk— showed her the picture and I got zero reaction just a literal shrug and “I’ll tell housekeeping” I asked her, “is that all you have to say?“ And she said “♀️ I saw it what you want me to say”
Many hotel chains have moved from single use plastic toiletries to bulk wall-mounted toiletries. They say it’s for the environment, but it isn’t. If they just cared about reducing plastic, they’d move to single use biodegradable packaging. Instead these refillable bottles are cheaper.
There are (3) basic problems with this for the guest.
- They don’t get refilled properly and when they do get refilled hotels are more likely to use counterfeit products. I’ve stayed in the same room at a hotel a week apart, where the shampoo was empty on my first stay – and still empty on my second. That’s if the bottle is even there.
Sheraton Berlin Grand Hotel Esplanade
byu/_Simon_14 inmarriott - They’re germ magnets. They simply aren’t sanitized by housekeeping. Here’s a National Institutes of Health study on bacterial contamination of bulk-soap-refillable dispensers.
- And guests have been known to put stuff in them you wouldn’t want there. Even where there have been safeguarding locks in place I’ve had rooms where those weren’t locked. Here’s someone who replaced bathroom soap with bodily fluid.
Here’s bottles from one of my Westin stays with unmatched bottles, that were not tamper proof, where the conditioner’s spout was dirty.
Anyone could have put something in those bottles that shouldn’t have been there. Housekeeping clearly didn’t clean them, either. And what in the world were they thinking using Marriott’s own 39 Degrees North branded shampoo and conditioner at a Westin? That’s the stuff used at Marriott’s lower-end Courtyard.
There’s no question that this is the direction the industry has gone, and it’s sad. It’s about owner costs, not hospitality, but the worst part is lying to guests telling us there’s a moral reason we should accept less. Like pretending ‘not washing your towels and sheets’ is about the environment (‘make a green choice’) we’re bad people if we push back against the cost cuts.
None of us use zero resources when we travel. Nor do hotels want us to! They want us to fly out to visit on planes. Among the areas where it makes sense to scale back, though, I’m not sure that hygiene makes the most sense.
Speaking of ‘lewd scribble,’ folks, I’m going to do my best to use none of ‘the’ four-letter words on here. Join us, ye remaining decent peeps, in our quest for substance over slander. Excelsior!
Single use disposable toiletries are best in hotels. However, since the bottom line is more important than the customer, we won’t likely see the return of single use items.
Bringing your own toiletries is the best solution, especially when travel-size bottles are easier to find these days.
When pilots intentionally fly a course that creates a “Sky Penis” or a “Middle Finger” shape over airspace and later share the radar trace of their flight path online, Air Traffic Controllers often shrug it off. The Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in Battle Creek, Michigan, is popular among commercial pilots. I recommend, on April 1st, that Gary Leff’s View from the Wing blog consider sponsoring a worldwide contest for the most creative radar-traced sky penis submission.
https://gizmodo.com/pilot-drawing-penis-see-ya-sky-ohio-flightradar24-1851285185
https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/08/02/pilot-draws-24-kilometre-long-penis-in-the-sky-after-being-diverted-from-catania-airport
https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2018/10/23/look-to-the-sky-the-triumphant-return-of-the-sky-penis-is-upon-us/
https://interestingengineering.com/culture/see-ya-pilot-paints-a-penis-in-the-sky-causing-social-media-frenzy?group=test_b
https://www.vice.com/en/article/us-air-force-drew-dick-russia/
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/lufthansa-pilot-draws-penis-in-the-sky-after-plane-forced-to-divert-report/articleshow/102369813.cms
https://www.newsweek.com/pilot-drawing-middle-finger-sky-flight-path-1738064
https://www.thedrive.com/news/26584/flight-instructor-draws-pair-of-penises-writes-im-bored-in-sky-over-australia
https://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/3/13/8207583/pilot-draws-giant-penis-flight-radar-florida
I guess from now on I should start calling pubic hair “lewd scribble?” Guessing Gary glanced at the thumbnail for two seconds and thought it was a drawing?
Gary, you keep making this argument that if they only cared about the environment, they’d just switch to single-use biodegradable packaging, which is a just plain ignorant statement.
1) You still have to produce the single-use packaging, which takes more energy and material than bulk containers
2) Unless you separate it into a compost stream, which never happens, the “biodegradable” packing still just ends up in the dump.
This isn’t to say hotels care about the environment, just that using “biodegradable” single use packaging is STILL bad for the environment.
Perhaps the hotel should be reported to the local health department: https://www.calhouncountymi.gov/departments/public_health_department/environmental_public_health.php
@ Gary — The InterContinentals and Park Hyatts we generally stay at keep the toilettries refilled, and the housekeepers carry the big bottles around on their carts to replace them. At low-grade brands where we are sometimes forced to stay becuase nothing better is available (or where the only nice hotel is a Marriott that we refuse to patronize), things like this are often not properly maintained. I guess you get what you pay for.
“The InterContinentals and Park Hyatts we generally stay at keep the toilettries refilled, and the housekeepers carry the big bottles around on their carts to replace them.”
@Gene: This is probably the absolute worst thing because that means the bottles are being tampered with. There’s also no guarantee that the correct product will be put into the correct bottle.
I’m with @Kellogg. File a complaint.
@FNT Delta Diamond — That’s an interesting point. Quality control of amenities like shampoo at a hotel and/or food at a lounge or on a flight are indeed important to some degree. For instance, if it leads to some harm or actual damages, that could be a real liability, but if it is merely deceptive, the harm may be so attenuated that any sort of remedy is really not necessary. Like, when you go to Delta SkyClub, you might expect Grown Alchemist soap and body lotion, because that seems to be the brand that they have partnered with, but whether they ‘keep the bottle’ and ‘refill’ a soap with a knockoff, it’s not really grounds for a lawsuit or anything. It’s just ‘being cheap.’ And over time and in different ways, folks start to notice who’s trying and who ain’t. Like, AA, other than a few things (Chelsea, Soho lounges, new Flagship Suites, isn’t ‘trying’ as hard anymore). Or, like SWA, at Elliott (mis)Management’s direct, appears to be hostile to passengers and workers at the moment. Time will tell if consumers notice and the underlying ownership pays any price for that.
Winston Churchill allegedly said “tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.”
I see this all the time in the hotel industry. “We are short-staffed so your room isn’t ready yet” becomes “we are working very hard on cleaning your room now, won’t be ready until 5pm.”
Same can be said about the official reason for all these re-fillable dispensers in the shower.
Your breakfast cereals at some hotels are also intentionally misbranded.
https://big1047.iheart.com/alternate/amp/2022-02-15-hotel-worker-reveals-that-the-name-brand-cereals-they-serve-arent-real/
@Disgruntled American — So, you’re saying, it’s ok to fail or lie, but just do it euphemistically. Got it. Cool. That’s kinda how things are going nowadays generally anyway, isn’t it? *sigh* It’s a shame, because we used to actually have a sense of pride in what we made and how we did it. Oh well. The enshitification continues. Ah, sorry, here we go again, though, fellas, arguably it wasn’t a four-letter word. Bah!
Ehhh yeah gonna make the extra effort to pack my own travel sized toiletries from now on. Need to be better about that
I lived in motels and hotels for 3 years and even the lower end ones were kept nice. This is ca. This was 15 years ago. Times have gotten worse, more laziness. They had a lot of things that got stolen tho like towels coffee makers clocks. But some of these inns and motels had the best hughe breakfasts, all you can eat w good food. These were holiday inns, and comfort inns and some others. I’ll bet they’ve all gotten cheaper now. There were good reward programs and free wifi and good cable tv. I hope some of this still exists.
That isn’t “scribbles”! That is hair!
@L737 — It’s good and all to have a travel-sized Head & Shoulders, or whatnot, especially if dandruff is an issue, because some of these products in the hotels are just awful.
But, then the issue becomes, if you only travel with carry-on, certain airport security protocols limit the total size of carry-on toiletries to a a 1 liter bag, like in Canada (the rule is ‘liquids, gels or aerosols in containers 100 ml / 100 g (3.4 oz.) or less. These containers MUST be placed in one (1) clear, closed and re-sealable plastic bag no larger than 1 liter, 1 quart’). This sometimes also an issue in the UK, EU, certain other countries as well. Not the USA (no need for the 1 liter bag, at least).
They do make biodegradable “tide pod” style shampoo conditioner and body wash
I carry the Earth Suds Brand in my gym bag, so it is entirely possible –
Recently read a lounge review, that had the pod type things in their shower rooms
Definitely curly hairs not scribbles. Maybe poor cleaning of the room but easy to fix as everything to fix it is right there. Use a paper tissue to throw away the hairs and soap and hot water to clean it up. As for the actual soap and shampoo, travel sizes are available that will fit in the TSA required resealable clear quart sized plastic bag. I prefer bar soap to liquid soap so I carry that while traveling and it doesn’t spill. I often have shampoo packets (sachets) with me in case I don’t like the shampoo provided or in case I am at a place without shampoo. I often bring back shampoo packets from Southeast Asia because I like the shampoo in them better than most shampoos I can get in the USA and at a much better price.
@ 1990 — I think you misunderstood my comment. Those big bottles are the same ones mounted in the room. I assumed they replaced them, but maybe they just take the empties and swap them, then refill them later and put them back in circulation. Would ne interesting to know.
That disgusting pic reminds me of Anita Hill & the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearing(s) and the controversial pubic hair on top of the coke can …. !
That is not a lewd drawing, it’s a pictograph. Pretty sure it’s protected by the antiquities act