Another hotel property has been caught refilling shampoo and bath gel dispensers in the shower from ketchup-style bulk containers that lack any branding at all.
Since hotel chains have moved away from mini-bottles for each guest to cheaper bulk toiletries, hotel have several new ways to cut costs. Sometimes they just don’t refill what’s in the shower. Other times they use counterfeit products. And with unbranded containers – like what a reader saw at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco – there’s no way for a guest to have confidence in what they’re putting on their body.
Is it even safe to use hotel toiletries when they’re provided this way? Here are the problems.
- 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.
I believe that the Hyatt Regency San Francisco is Hyatt-managed rather than being franchised and operated by a third party. So while the REIT which owns the hotel may like these generic bulk packages, I’m surprised to see Hyatt staff using them. The bulk toiletries are a bad enough customer experience, but are standard for the brand. Refilling from generic product on the other hand seems clearly a step too far.
I still remember staying at a resort in the Philippines were a guy was refilling the mini bottles using a big jug and a funnel. I generally bring my own.
I bring my own. Why would you want to have a skin reaction while away from home.
They have these small bottles that you can take with you. I take a bar of soap and at the end leave it in the last hotel as it is almost used up
I bring my own. Why would you want to have a skin reaction while away from home.
They have these small bottles that you can take with you. I take a bar of soap and at the end leave it in the last hotel as it is almost used up.
And the commercial ketchup jug is filled from a 55-gallon drum in the basement whose contents trace back to an obscure Chinese manufacturer.
Personally, I’d rather see hotels skip the toiletries outright. If needed, have them available for purchase at the front desk/gift shop.
But blogs make us believe that Hyatt hotels are superior to all others and not just overpriced marketing hype???
What a nothing-burger. A container is a container. So long as it wasn’t mixed with ketchup beforehand, it should be fine, and unless you’re super nosy, no guest even sees this.
@1990
The worry isn’t that it’s mixed up with ketchup but that it’s mixed up with urine/sperm.
Jesus man – you assume the worst. I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt and also am not really that picky about the shampoo, conditioner and body wash I use on the road. I know it likely isn’t as good as what I use at home but I will get by.
If you are THAT concerned just pack your own or go by a CVS and pick some up after you land.
Gary – your continued pet peeves (of which there are many) get REALLY old. You won’t change this so accept reality. BTW, this topic has been beat so badly that horse is dead!
Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, advertises, “We care for people so they can be their best.” Imagine ordering a cheeseburger at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco’s Eclipse Kitchen and Bar. If the intern trainee junior chef accidentally substitutes shampoo and hair conditioner from the same squeeze containers used for ketchup and mustard, your gourmet double-patty grass-fed burger will end up tasting like soap.
@Derek – I seriously doubt the hotel is adding urine/sperm to the refill jugs they give housekeeping. How paranoid can people possibly be?! If you are THAT worried take your own. Personally I use what is supplied and don’t give it a second thought unlike Gary and a few similar germaphobes on here.
I was denied a bar of soap when I requested one. I am Diamond IHG didn’t matter they dont have bar of soap anymore.
There are two Hyatt Regency hotels in downtown San Francisco, and one at the airport.
Which property is this story about?
California banned the small single use bottles in hotels. I’m not sure what the expectation is here…?
“If you are THAT concerned just pack your own or go by a CVS and pick some up after you land.”
Yes, but… when you go to throw away that CVS receipt, the garbage bins in most hotel rooms these days don’t even have plastic bags in them. Auuuuughhhhhhh!!!!
No wonder why my fries tasted like they had soap on them
There was a day when Hyatt had high standards but they are dropping standards like lead weights around their ankles acting like they are broke
Truly sad
Do people still use the bulk hotel soaps? Weird. Maybe the housekeeper will let you borrow their ChapStick as well. After all, why should every person have to waste all that plastic having individual tubes of ChapStick? I’m sure somewhere there is an AI-generated video of a seal with a tube of lip balm sticking out of its ear or something.
A real non-issue for us folks who have a preferred shampoo and think bar soap is the only way to go. I never use the hotel’s provided items. I bring my own. Why would anyone use a mystery gel?
@Teresa Henning: IHG eliminated bars of soap from all IHG brands two or three years ago. Even Intercontinentals no longer have to provide soap.
You can be damn sure the product isn’t the fancy name that is the brand standard. The management is probably buying a cheap, generic shampoo and refilling the branded containers with it.
Of course, the problem is in a big city, like San Francisco, many of the housekeepers may not speak English as their first language. They may have zero ability to even read English words like “shampoo.” It seems like these bottles should be labeled in Spanish and, in San Francisco, some Asian languages.
It’s just a plastic container… it no doubt saves housekeeping dragging a big drum of the stuff and makes the bottles easier to top off…
It feels like snobbery, undeserved snobbery, considering it’s a mid range Hyatt hotel…Just about every public restroom and pool/spa facility has the same shared soap dispensers, I don’t know why you would turn up your nose at them in a hotel room.
@Amt: Hyatt Regency is not a “mid range Hyatt.” This is the flagship Hyatt property in San Francisco.
A quick search reveals that hotels buy the bath gels in large jugs and refill as needed. Simple LOGIC tells me they use the smaller bottles to refill in the rooms. It sounds like this writer needs to take their medication and stay home before bashing a hotel.
@Dennis M
Using dispensers is one thing. It’s unfortunately a mainstay now.
However, refilling them is another thing. The CDC says refillable dispensers are extremely dangerous and unsanitary.
We bring our own travel size bottle of baby wash/shampoo and use it for everything. You can also buy it cheap in every local supermarket, drug store, and convenience store around the world. We use it to avoid some of the horrid fragrances in some of the included brands, plus it has no harsh chemicals to irritate your skin..
Maybe instead of writing an article to bash a hotel you should just ask the staff for the product origin. I believe Hyatt usually uses local products. The local company probably uses generic containers as it’s not meant for resale when selling in bulk to hotels