A few months ago, IHG announced that they would be eliminating mini-toiletry bottles that everyone steals collects from their hotel rooms by 2021. And in the travel industry, typically, when one organization makes a move, it’s not long before others follow. So it’s not surprising to see, nearly 2 months later, Marriott, the world’s largest hotel group, make the same declaration.
While this is no doubt, at least, partly a cost cutting move, it is also good for the environment, so I’m a fan of it.
Marriott Bans Single-Use Toiletries
Marriott announced this week that they will be eliminating single-use toiletries (e.g. shampoo, conditioner, bath gel, etc.) in guest rooms globally. Instead they’ll be replacing them with larger, wall-mounted, pump-style bottles.
If you have stayed in a Marriott property recently you may have already encountered the pump-style bottles. In 2018 Marriott began using the larger pump dispensers at Courtyard by Marriott, SpringHill Suites, Residence Inn, Fairfield by Marriott, and TownePlace Suites. In addition, most of their limited service hotels (e.g. Aloft Hotels, Element by Westin, Four Points and Moxy Hotels) already utilize these large dispenser bottles.
At the moment, Marriott has begun using these at about 1,000 properties in North America and says this will prevent nearly 500 million bottles per year from going into landfills.
With nearly 7,000 properties in their collection, it’s not hard to see how many bottles Marriott produces annually.
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While I trust this is largely a cost-savings decision by the hotel groups, I’m a big fan of this movement for a few reasons:
- Many of the mini-toiletries are not made for my skin or my hair so I find myself having to bring and use my own products from home. Thus, this decision does not effect me as much as it may effect others.
- I’m an avid scuba diver and have seen the effect that plastics have taken on our oceans so I support any measure to curb polluting our oceans and helping our environment.
Ultimately, it’s the right thing to do because mini-toiletries are wasteful and unnecessary even if people love to collect them for their stash at-home. However, I hope that IHG, Marriott, and any other hotel brand that chooses to go this direction that quality stays par for the course (or improves). For example, please don’t introduce inferior product because it isn’t labeled.
Additionally, although I think this is a good move, I think there there will be a few challenges for hotels like ensuring housekeepers are cleaning the containers properly, the products are not contaminated with nefarious substances, and the containers are working properly.
How day you feel about this move? Have you used the larger pump bottles before? How big is your collection of mini-toiletries?
1TattedPassport 