Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Environmentally Friendly Bathroom Amenities

What ever happened to the push to move towards amenity dispensers in hotel guestroom bathrooms?

I can remember being with two hotel companies, at different times in my hotel career, that were at one time exploring the possibility of installing dispensers into the shower/bath area in their guestrooms.

In both cases, we actually installed dispensers into a select number of guestrooms as well as having created specific guest comment cards for those rooms, in order to solicit specific feedback and to gauge how well guests accepted this environmentally friendly option.

That was over 10 years ago, and it occurred to me today, as I was reflecting on recent trips that I have taken, which have for the last year or so been confined to the United States, that I have not seen a dispensing system in any of the hotels that I have stayed in, and they have ranged from 3 star to 4.5 star and represented the major industry brands.

The same can be said of hotels that I have stayed in, within the last 5 years, within Europe.  All major branded facilities, both urban and resort locations, and all still using those tiny little amenity bottles.

So, what happened, and how did this seemingly pressing need suddenly fall off the radar?

Are you aware of any hotels that have successfully moved away from individual amenity bottles to a more environmentally friendly alternative?

If so, please let me know.

I recognize that the industry has continued to move forward with the recycling of left-over amenities, and with the use of more environmentally friendly amenity bottles and wrappers, but is that it?  Is that as good as it gets?

I’d be the first to admit that some of the dispensers that I saw, at the time when we were doing testing, about 10 years ago, were both unattractive and problematic, but I would have thought, in the same way that we have made so many advances in virtually every other field, that someone, arguably smarter and more creative than I am, would have invented a “better mousetrap” and then convinced one of the industry leaders to be the guinea pig and away we go.

So again, what happened?

If you were involved in testing of amenity dispensers at your hotel, or, you have any other insight in why this seemingly good idea never took off, please share your comments with the rest of us.

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4 comments:

  1. Park Inn by Radisson, but it is still as unattractive as they used to be I'd say.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kimpton Hotels have installed a really efficient and good looking system from Essentiel Elements which is now in several of their hotels.

    They offer a very good design and do not look like the "locker room" style dispenser in your article.

    ReplyDelete
  3. In my previous work, I visited and inspected more than tens of hotels in Japan, my country. Except for 5* luxury brands, installed shampoo dispenser is a common items. I believe space-wise, cose-wise, it works better in other countries?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was subsequently contacted by Paul Weber, the
    President/Co-Founder of Swisssol Inc. Creative Body Care, who shared with me their attractive and innovative line of products, which it turns out are in use in some of the finer Hotels.

    His contact info is: paul@swisssol.com

    www.swisssol.com

    ReplyDelete