Tag Archives for toiletries.
Sheraton Frankfurt Airport is steps from the terminal, where virtually every guest is flying in or out — yet the hotel says bar soap isn’t “sustainable,” even on request. In the same email, it offers to deliver printed newspapers, and its own photo gallery still shows bar soap in the bathroom.
I can’t rely on the order of placement of the bottles in hotel showers. I need to read the labels. But invariably, writing on the labels is always too small for me to read without glasses. I have to get in the shower with my glasses on, remember which bottle is where, get out to remove my glasses and get back in.
We aren’t re-using grocery bags right now, or dishware on airplanes – everything is moving towards single use because we’re in the midst of a global pandemic. Hotels need to recognize that and take it seriously and end this ill-fated experiment with getting guests to re-use each others’ shampoo.
I’m not suggesting environmental considerations aren’t meaningful – they just point towards single use biodegradable packaging, which have been in some hotels for years, not communal use.
Marriott and IHG have already announced that they’re getting rid of single use toiletries and replacing them with wall mounted bulk shampoo, bath gel, and conditioner.
Now customers in California won’t be able to vote with their feet looking for a more hygienic or luxurious alternative.
I don’t know what the substance was in the bulk toiletry and it really doesn’t matter. That these get tampered with in practice should be enough to stop the project in its tracks. And 5000 Marriott points as an apology for this is genuinely offensive.
How can the hotel expect to charge for a room that is so poorly cared for by housekeeping, and that jeopardizes a guest’s health by allowing the toiletries to be compromised in this way?
Make no mistake: this is a cost cut you’re shamed into liking because good people care about the environment – but it is not necessary to go to bulk if you want to make environmental progress.
When you ‘make a green choice’ to let hotels save money on housekeeping, at least they’ll usually give you points so you can share in the savings (but not at the Hyatt Regency Seattle).
Marriott revealed that wall mounted toiletries save a couple thousand dollars per hotel each year. That’s a big savings across all of their managed North American properties who are making the switch from individual bottles.
A video going viral on social media shows a family caught by their hotel in Bali with items in their luggage stolen from the hotel. The family got into an argument with hotel staff, and the property demanded they open their bags for inspection. They were caught with stolen items from their room. One stolen piece after another gets revealed.
A former Starwood GM reports the theft of a grand piano from his lobby. Some guests walk out with the TV from their room. Another GM reports a guest unscrewing the room number off their door for a souvenir.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
