I recently stayed at the Westin Arlington and was reminded why I hate wall-mounted toiletries as soon as I stepped into the bathroom. There were:
- unmatched bottles
- that were not tamper proof
- and 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 are 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. On Marriott’s shopping website they still list White Tea as the brand’s shampoo.
For some reason only two of the three items were converted to the cheaper in-house stuff, which was even stranger still. Oh, I should add that the light in the shower flickered on and off.
This isn’t being done ‘to be green’ as hotel chains claim. If that were the goal they’d use single use biodegradable packaged toiletries. It’s about cost savings, just as reduced housekeeping is about cost savings (they no longer even award you points for ‘making a green choice’ by saving the hotel on housekeeping labor). But at least don’t just go through the motions, choose a brand and stick to it, make it tamper-proof and for goodness sakes clean the spouts on the bottles.
How about bringing back the bars of soap, the mouthwash, shoe mint, etc that you used to get before covid at legacy Starwood brands Sheraton and Westin?
Just stayed at the Westin Grand in Frankfurt, Germany. Body wash on the wall mounted soaps ran out during a one night stay. Such bullshit.
It’s clear that Marriott really doesn’t care about the legacy Starwood brands. The Sheratons have been roach motels for years now, and the Westins are headed in that direction.
Your paranoia about semen in the shampoo is just bizarre.
It seems as if the race to bottom is getting more intense.
As long as people keep believing that the likes of Westin or Hyatt are somehow worth the money, they can ride that false sense of “luxury” all the way to the bank.
Gary,
Please just travel with your own shampoo and quit posting these articles. We get it – you are paranoid about a few things but the majority of us are sick and tired of hearing about it.
I frankly don’t care and will use whatever is provided without complaint
Good post even though I disagree. This type of personal opinion post is a lot better than most content on this site.
I disagree most vigorously about cleaning the spouts. They’ll use the same towel they used to clean your toilet.
Concern about tampering is just unfounded. Millions of hotel nights have been completed in these conditions and not one report of adverse effects has come about. Seamen in the containers won’t harm you.
The bottles are seldom mounted where I can easily reach and use them. Not just Marriott but most chains.
Springhill Suites NASA/Seabrook. They just took the bottles off the wall completely and put them in the soap tray. Had the back that hooks to the wall still in them. And they only had shampoo and conditioner, no body wash.
You keep preaching about “single use biodegradable packaged toiletries” but why do you think those are green? They still have to be produced, and they still end up in a landfill. The bottles are absolutely greener than any single-use packaging, biodegradable or not. Not saying the reason the hotel is doing it isn’t cost, but this is a case where higher costs align with worse environmental impact.
Also, did you try opening the bottles? After your previous articles my last hotel stay I tried to open the bottles and could not, and the bottles in your picture do not look like they can be opened either.
brteacher – it isn’t paranoia, it is well founded skepticism. I stayed at a Westin a few months back and someone who stayed before me had pissed in all three bottles. The property refused any kind of compensation or apology until I wen to corporate, at which point my stay was comped and I received a large number of points – only after, however, I kindly reminded them that there were likely multiple offenses that could be levied against the former tenant and the proprietor of the hotel.
I can understand Gary’s concerns about the wall-mounted toiletries. ThAnd there is absolutely no reason that biodegradable, single- or double size packets of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash can’t be made available. I saw some in Africa made of thick paper, coated inside with a fine layer of wax (think: a thinner version of a Dixie cup). More efficient (time=money) for housekeeping to stock those rather than take the time to check each bottle, refill, replace, and wipe down.
The other option is shampoo, conditioner, and body wash ‘beads’ or ‘pucks’, about the size of dinner mints; some I saw in Asia were pressed flat, like a popsicle stick. These can be wrapped in paper or thin (biodegradable) plastic.
Seriously, I think the executives and managers of these hotel chains haven’t traveled enough to experience what creative forms of cost-savings exist in other parts of the world.
“Your paranoia about semen in the shampoo is just bizarre.”
Exactly. Someone COULD also “put something” into the cart full of individual sized toiletries that sits for hours in every hallway. Or even in the individual-sized toiletry that sits on the sink and won’t be swapped out if there’s no evidence it’s used up.
Simple solution, ask for a new bottle from housekeeping. I’m typing this from my bathroom in a Residence Inn in WI which uses the same wall mounted 39 North brand. They gave me brand new bottles to use. Not sure if it’s standard to replace the bottles or refill them but here they seem to just throw out old bottles and use new ones until they run out.
First off you are in Arlington. Next if you travel much you take your own shampoo, soap, etc. Seems like your just looking for something to bitch about.
I like the big bottles. You don’t have to worry about having enough body wash when housekeeping doesn’t replace half used tiny bottles.
I stayed at a brand spanking new Residence Inn last month and the bottles were sitting on the shower shelf. I mentioned it to the Front Office Manager and she said after on e month being open, they are all falling off the walls because people push down too hard on the spouts and the get knocked off the walls.
If you are showering and using the shampoo…how would you know it’s semen or shampoo ?
Hmm….
Semen is all natural !
The only shocking thing I see about this post is the number of people that actually use the big bottles. I started carrying my own once this started. But once you get out of the U.S. things are much more normal. Just spent two weeks traveling from Tokyo to Fukushima. Stayed places ranging from $70 a night to $400 a night. Never saw a single big bottle. And you know how the Japanese are about trash. It’s just an excuse in the U.S.
At some hotels, they are placing hand/body lotion pumps closer to the sink/faucet than soap. My guess is that a chunk of people are washing their hands while mistakenly thinking they are using soap. On top of that, I am finding some major brand hotels wall-mounted/counter-mounter toiletries to sometimes have the same content across multiple bottles despite there being different labels on the bottles. I am also too often finding one or more of these toiletry bottles to be empty or nearly empty when I get into the rooms upon checking in. It’s gotten bad enough that I carry a small bar of soap as back-up to have easily accessible just in case.
I’ve also found an unreasonable amount of airplane lavatories to be out of hand soap in the pumps on flights this summer in a way that I rarely used to encounter in pre-pandemic years on these same TATL routes.
I have been trying for years to get Marriott to understand that the writing on the bottle is impossible to read without glasses. I have to pre-read them before I get in ths shower. Small issue, but it bugs me.
All the hotels really need to do is offer 1-2 bars of packaged soap like they used to. Most normal people don’t use “body wash” (whatever the heck that is) or conditioner (whatever that does). If the hotels need to save money, get rid of those awful tea/coffee/bottled water displays in the rooms. Nobody in their right mind would use that filthy hot water maker. Get rid of the pens and pads. Get rid of the hard-wired phones. Get rid of the decorative pillows and nasty comforters. Stock rooms with 2 large bath towels, a towel mat, 2 hand towels, 4 foam pillows (with choice of pillow types noted at reservation).
Making money in a hotel should not be difficult. Keep the room as simple as possible, have a well-stocked guest shop to buy various sundries (like conditioner and body wash, jeesh), give discounts if guests don’t want housekeeping (I cancel regardless but the discount is a relationship builder for guests/brands), allow for automated check-in without surly receptionists, allow for automated check-out with auto-emailed receipts, and make sure there is as little people contact as possible. That’s a winning formula.
I do not like them. Many properties reuse the same bottles. They are not difficult too difficult to remove, but to open a little more challenging.
Marriott is a shame, shared bottles are disgusting, and no one paying should be subjected to them. Hotel chains for years have been promoted by websites like this one. It’s time paying customers complain.
And one last thing: GET RID OF FREE BREAKFASTS. Nobody wants it. The ones that are offered–even in high-end hotels like Four Seasons and Fairmont–are disgusting. Give a 50%-off voucher to a local restaurant within walking distance but don’t make us non-breakfast-eating guests pay for lard-ass guests to fill their pie-holes at the free breakfast.
This paranoia / fetish you have about these bottles is truly bizarre, Leff.
Do you avoid communal soap bottles in restaurants? Or gyms? Or public bathrooms? Or airline lounges? “Someone” could “put something” in all of those too. And they all get far more traffic/usage than an individual hotel room.
Oh, and these being driven by cost savings for the hotels and better for the environment can both be true. Not mutually exclusive.
#TeamBigBottlesAreBetter
Supply chain issues are still a problem.
A Fairview I frequent was using 39 north for two of the three products in the shower for awhile.
Also 39 north isn’t terrible. And Westin’s usual brand isn’t all that special. Not sure what the big deal is.
I think the abandonment of single use was forced in some major markets by state legislation… This probably helped encourage brands to go that way nation wide. It streamlined their corporate contracts (easier to have all Westin’s buy the big bottles than some buy big and some buy single use); it has good optics (“we care about the environment”); and yes it saves them money.
Amazing how far this brand has fallen. I just travel with my own stuff as I had some gross experiences with the shower mounted options when that trend started. People who think we’re paranoid about those bottles maybe don’t travel as much as they claim.
I agree. I see a lot of posters disagreeing with you. But it is another symptom of how the hotels are charging more and offering less. Westin has always meant luxury and something a little bit better. Real service stateside barely existed before COVID. But since COVID, service in the USA is gone forever. It gave the bean counters the excuse they needed to chip away at every amenity that made travel better.
@Paul – hotel chains favored the switch due to cost cutting, and legislation that bans single use plastics doesn’t ban single use biodegradables. bulk packaging doesn’t prevent a hotel from: using tamper proof mounting, keeping bottles properly refilled, using the correct products, cleaning the bottle spouts.
Quite simple….bring your own.
The best is to load up on toiletries at resort-type properties, they’re good for decent quality soap bars, shampoo, conditioner and bring them when staying at a non-resort property. I won’t name the hotel brand but during one stay, their wall mounted “probiotic” body wash smelled like rotten eggs, it was disgusting.
Just observe how people behave as you travel. Do you think someone talking about “lard-ass guests filling their pie-hole” is going to give any thought to the next guest?
The same mechanism that makes people lead with their middle finger online, namely essential anonymity, gives them permission (in their minds) to share bodily fluids with the rest of us. Think semen is innocuous? Think about wiping herpes or HIV across a sore or cut on your body provided by someone who is angry at the world.
Given that greed drives every business decision, we could all boycott a brand and they still wouldn’t bring individual bottles back.
My dopp kit contains sufficient soap, body wash and conditioner for two weeks in silicone bottles. It also contains a travel size of a hospital grade disinfectant soap like Hibiclens to use if the room conditions warrent. The last time I used a hotel-provided toiletry was at a Ritz-Carlton before the buyout.
My personal pair of big-boy underwear motivates me to be as self-sufficient as possible for my own peace of mind and respectful of those around and following me as we all travel, as befits an adult.
Some of you complain about the hygiene aspects of a shared bottle of body wash, but have no problem sleeping on a mattress thousands of people have slept on (among other things).
I had this recently happen to me at a small chain motel. Did not have any shampoo in the big bottle. I asked for it three different times. Never got it so drove to Dollartree and got a three pack bar of soap for $1.25. Complained about it at checkout and they waved the $10 per day resort fee for both days so I was ahead by $18.75
@Alain.. when did hotels stop providing sheets that they put on top of the mattress?
Bar soap was a real waste. One time use usually then housekeeping trashes them. What do they do with all those little barely used bars of soap?
No remarks about how the 39 North bottles have such terrible contrast between bottle color and printing that you can’t even discern which bottle is which with your glasses off?
The lighting in many of these bathrooms are so inadequate now that you have to look first and remember the order of bottles (because there’s no consistency there, either) before you jump in.
The coffee makers aren’t tamper-proof either. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if (mostly men) grew the eff up?
The thing I hate most about this particular brand of wall mounted products is the labeling. Light blue green font on a light blue background. They’re impossible to read in the poorly lit showers. It’s a Marriott brand, expect it.
Arthur, you could pull a muscle with such sweeping assumptions. I’d like for you to make that comment during the health/fitness conventions I go to. Would be quite a show.
Many hotels breakfast are as good if not better than restaurant offerings and for what I pay for the rooms damn well can offer me a breakfast. “disgusting” is very subjective especially when it comes to food. I think potatos are disgusting, that doesn’t mean no one else should have access to them or eat them.
If you don’t want breakfast then don’t pay for a room that comes with it or stay at hotels that offer it. Pretty simple, instead of Four Seasons go to St. Regis.
I’d wager that guests with your attitude cost the hotels far more in employee turn over than offering me egg white omelettes made to order.
My personal issue with the wall mounted bottles is that hotels mount them so that I bump them while showering. They should be mounted out of the way instead of narrowing the available shower space.
I bring my own. I learned the hard way that I am allergic to a shampoo in a green container used by some Courtyard hotels.
I am currently at a Westin, and they have it together. I am in an accessible room. They have the wall-mounted variety of toiletries, but they were wise enough to have a second set closer to the floor for the use of guests with limited mobility.
The app has the option to request a variety of housekeeping services, including individual shampoo, soap, etc.
On a global level, a friend is a manager for a mid-market chain hotel. He said that the larger bottles break frequently. They frequently run out of the correct types of toiletries, and they have to dilute them or use something else.
I am certain that there is a way around these problems without filling landfills and the ocean with plastic bottles. Some travel-sized toiletries (Malin + Goetz) come in aluminium tubes. As does some toothpaste. Is that better?
As we see liquid rules finally subside over the next couple of years, it will also reduce the need for miniscule toiletries.
p.s. As I am travelling internationally, I have to keep each of my medications in its own, unique plastic bottle with the pharmacy, prescriber, etc. That’s eleven plastic bottles just in case a Customs official wants me to prove that I am not carrying Fentanyl. There should be some way for a doctor or pharmacy to prepare a travel-size quantity in a refillable “Customs Friendly” tablet dispenser for a seven to 10 day supply.
+80% occupancy – they don’t need to pull out all the stops anymore.
Good land of the living.
I’ve done 3 months around the world travels, using my Goop tubes and Dr Bronners and been just fine.
It’s not just Westin we are currently at Laguna Cliffs Marriott resort with rates 2-3x higher than Westin Arlington. Shower has pump bottles and no soap bar. Fortunately I always pack my own leftover hyatt etc. soap bars as this is what we expect. Thankfully daily room cleaning is still de riguer though the Plat breakfast is a poor looking continental offering. Boxed water is offered in place of plastic bottles.
Marriott really does not give a rats *** about elites now, much less regular customers.
“Semen in the shampoo”??? I had to Google that to see it’s (allegedly) a real thing. Here I thought it was the bedspread I should fear my life from.
Gary, Goldwater Rule aside, you need some relaxation. The amount of stress you seem to go through over entirely inconsequential things is huge. Other posters said “bring your own shampoo.” I’ve been doing that throughout my entire consulting (flying to/from) career. Same for toothpaste. Conditioner is for women.
It’s not going green any more than hot dogs being 75% the size/weight they used to be and they make the buns shorter now so “bun length” still works out. It’s “shrinkflation” or just plain theft.
You know what, you like to whine. I do to. How about this. I’ll propose a whine topic, and you run with it.
RESORT FEES. No excuse for it. Not for any property. If it’s a mandatory “fee” then it’s part of the room rate.
CLEANING FEE. Those are coming. It used to be your room was cleaned daily. Now, “to be green” you have to request it in some places. Soon when you will request it there will be a fee. But yet, the house rate for the room IS the cleaning fee ($40 usually).
Until the nightly room rate looks like the following, Truth in Advertising should hold and properties should post the complete rate:
1. ROOM – This is what we charge you for a room res.
2. CLEANING – This is what we charge you for each day we clean/replenish/restock your room.
3. MINIBAR – Oh did you take something? We’ll fill that right up for $10/shot of whatever.
4. TOWELS – Did you need extra towels because 2 2′ x 1′ towels aren’t enough for the two of you for five nights? There’s a fee for that.
5. TP/Kleenex/Consumables – There’s a fee for that
6. EXTRA DEALER PROFIT – also “extra dealer prep” also “resort fees”. No reason. Just cuz.
7. OUT OF TOWNERS SCREW YOU TAX – Our politicians know you don’t vote here so they slapped a 20% surcharge on you. Thanks for shopping smart. Shop S-Mart — Army of Darkness
8. TIP – Here’s an envelope to leave extra money so the lady we fired (saves money, more green) and didn’t clean your room for four days gets none, but the lady who made sure you checked out picked it up and gave it to us.
Rant on. I’ve got your back on this one. There’s more.
E
P.S. Your site’s password recovery is broken. It sends via email a link to just view articles, not reset password.
“Here’s an envelope to leave extra money so the lady we fired… ”
Ehud, you are my hero. I just spit up my tea when I read that.
Cheers, my fellow countryman.
I want my branded mini bars of soap back. Now.
Urine and semen are sterile. I’d watch out for the chocolates with turndown service.
There is a lot to unpack in this article. Most of it is unfounded and/or first world problems. Let’s discuss how those workers, you so cavalierly say should clean better, definitely cannot survive off the wages they make. Working class solidarity.