Tiny Shampoo Bottles Are Out at Dozens of Marriott and InterContinental Hotel Brands

[MULTIZ321]

Tiny Shampoo Bottles Are Out at Dozens of Marriott and InterContinental Hotel Brands
By Hugo Martin/ Business/ LA Times/ Los Angeles Times/ latimes.com

"Two of the world's largest hotel companies have started phasing out those tiny shampoo and conditioner bottles that travelers have been stealing from hotel bathrooms for years.

InterContinental Hotels and Marriott International both began this year to replace the individual-size bottles with large pump bottles that are locked and fastened to the showers in more than a dozen of their chains across the country.

The two hotel giants cited several reasons for the switch: The tiny empty bottles are rarely recycled and end up in landfills; the small bottles run out, especially when multiple guests stay in one room; and the caps to the bottles often fall into the drain, causing maintenance problems.

Hotel representatives say they have installed the bigger dispensers at hotels favored by business travelers, who are considered more experienced travelers...."

The tiny shampoo bottles have been replaced at more than a dozen hotel brands operated by Marriott International and InterContinental Hotels. Many Holiday Inn Express hotels now have larger pump bottles fastened to the shower walls. (InterContinental Hotels)


Richard

 

[Fasttr]

For work, I often stay at the Courtyard in Boca, and these were newly installed on my last visit.

 

[DaveNV]

I'm not really a germaphobe, but the conspiracy theorist in me questions what people might do to the contents of these bottles. For the same reason I'm told timeshares don't like having opened spices in kitchen cabinets, I'd think shared bathroom bottles would be a potential safety hazard.

Dave

 

[dioxide45]

I'm not really a germaphobe, but the conspiracy theorist in me questions what people might do to the contents of these bottles. For the same reason I'm told timeshares don't like having opened spices in kitchen cabinets, I'd think shared bathroom bottles would be a potential safety hazard.

Dave

They have used these in the cruise industry for many years.

 

[Luanne]

I'm not really a germaphobe, but the conspiracy theorist in me questions what people might do to the contents of these bottles. For the same reason I'm told timeshares don't like having opened spices in kitchen cabinets, I'd think shared bathroom bottles would be a potential safety hazard.

Dave

I've used these in gyms, spas and hotels. Never thought about what people might do to the contents. Actually I like them better than the little bottles. Don't have to worry about them sliding off the shelf, or bathtub edge, down by your feet, don't have to try to open, and close them with wet slippery hands, and for those of us visually challenged it's easier to see which is shampoo and which is conditioner.

 

[DaveNV]

As I said, it's the conspiracy theorist in me that was asking.

I carry my own products, and don't generally use the hotel little bottle versions, for all the reasons you name. So it's not an issue for me. I have used the body wash at the gym, but for some reason, that seems safer to me. I admit it would take a certain kind of nut job to want to mess with it, but we've all seen on the news that those kind of crazies are out there.

Dave

 

[dioxide45]

I wonder what this may mean for some organizations that rely on those "stolen" bottles. I know that woman's shelters often utilize donations of these shampoo bottles and soaps to provide to woman in need. There is also an organization that takes all the leftover bars, sanitized them and repackages them for use in the third world.

 

[VacationForever]

Unfortunately I am allergic to all these mass produced commercial brand products that I have to bring my own bath and skin products so I don't care what they provide.

 

[dougp26364]

I believe the article is a little misleading when it says "stolen" bottles of shampoo and conditioner. If I'm paying for the room, those disposable smaller-than-trial-size bottles are mine as far as I'm concerned. Besides, I wouldn't want someone else's left overs.

I work as a nurse. My problem with shared toiletries is I've seen how some people live. Not everyone is the most sanitary and there are some people who make me go, "Why the heck would anyone do THAT?" Lord only knows what some idiot might do with those things. I'm even hesitant to use the salt and pepper shakers in a restaurant because I watched in horror as one of my cousins children literally licked the top of a salt shaker several times and they did nothing about it.

Thanks hotel chains across America but, I prefer the individual size containers for one of the same reasons you site as going to the shared containers (people allow the caps to get into the plumping). That being you never know what someone else is going to do with the shared container or how sanitary it may or may not be.

 

[Sapper]

I really dislike the communal shower stuff. In highschool, college, at the gym, etc.... Ok. Where I am paying for the room, and hence also the bath product, unacceptable. I feel this cheapens the brand doing it. I also feel it is profit driven, not in any sense quality driven... back to cheapening the entity doing it.

 

[dioxide45]

I really dislike the communal shower stuff. In highschool, college, at the gym, etc.... Ok. Where I am paying for the room, and hence also the bath product, unacceptable. I feel this cheapens the brand doing it. I also feel it is profit driven, not in any sense quality driven... back to cheapening the entity doing it.

I agree, it is all about shaving a few hundredths of a percent in the overall margins. It probably works out to millions of dollars a year to the corporation.

 

[rapmarks]

I really object to the word stealing, Are we also stealing soap, a klenix tissue, toilet paper? Are these just decorative items? I thought they were in the room for our use.

 

[dioxide45]

I really object to the word stealing, Are we also stealing soap, a klenix tissue, toilet paper? Are these just decorative items? I thought they were in the room for our use.

I think whey they say stealing, they are meaning people taking the full bottles home with them. Not using them at the property and leaving the full ones behind.

 

[DaveNV]

I'm glad some of you see where I was coming from.

I also object to the word "stolen." Because it implies the little bottles are hotel property, intended to be refilled or reused. (Eeeww!!) I prefer to think of them as "Complimentary." Some hotel chains even label that sort of thing as such, inviting the guest to keep it. (Shower caps come to mind.)

As often happens at the gym I go to, the shared body wash bottle is empty, or is clogged and doesn't work. Great... So now you're soaking wet in the shower, and can't get to the soap/whatever because it isn't working. How often will those shared bottles be refilled? If housekeeping is supposed to refill them between guests, where has the refill jug been sitting, who/what has touched it, and what germs is it carrying? It all just makes me uncomfortable. I'll continue to bring my own, thanks.

Dave

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

This level of cheapness makes me wonder whether I'm dealing with Marriott or Motel 6 . . . .

 

[ljmiii]

My question is "Where are they going to put them?". The only places I've ever seen them before are in shower stalls - gym, school, etc. There just isn't a height that is convenient to use something stuck to the wall soaking in the bathtub and showering. Having to stand up to get shampoo in the middle of your bath would just completely suck.

 

[SueDonJ]

Yuck. There's no way that those bottles and their holder are going to ever be as sparkling clean as the day they're installed, never mind that the holder is going to be coming off the wall within months. Plus the brand-name product can be "stolen" as easily as the small bottles are now, simply by refilling the brand-name bottles with Dollar Store inferior products that were salvaged from a burning container ship after an oilspill caused a fire on it. Guests would do it without a second thought, hotel managers thinking of their bottom line would be tempted to order their housekeeping staff to do it.

 

[WinniWoman]

Pollard Brook has permanent dispensers for shampoo, conditioner and shower gel in the shower/tub area and I actually like it better than those tiny bottles as they refill them every so often or upon request.

I actually bring my own stuff- it's packed in our timeshare box- but always end up just using theirs'.

 

[Passepartout]

Mox Nix to me. I bring my own.

 

[Luanne]

As I said, it's the conspiracy theorist in me that was asking.

I carry my own products, and don't generally use the hotel little bottle versions, for all the reasons you name. So it's not an issue for me. I have used the body wash at the gym, but for some reason, that seems safer to me. I admit it would take a certain kind of nut job to want to mess with it, but we've all seen on the news that those kind of crazies are out there.

Dave

I carry my own products (shampoo, conditioner) as well and generally use those. But I will use body wash if that's available at the hotel, and many times if we're in a hotel for just one night we'll use the hotel supplies rather than unpack all of ours.

 

[mdurette]

I think whey they say stealing, they are meaning people taking the full bottles home with them. Not using them at the property and leaving the full ones behind.

Well...then by this definition, I guess I'm a thief. I always bring my own shampoo, conditioner and soap from home and bring the hotel supplied stuff home. Sometimes, they use to get packaged up and given to a local shelter or sent overseas during military collections. Most recently my tween daughter has decided they all belong to her and she treats as samples.

I always just assumed cleaners make a clean sweep of all products in a bathroom and throw it all out, even if unused.

A few TSs we frequent in New England have these and most of the cruise lines....I don't use them. This change won't impact me at all. I'm with some others that always think the worse about what people "could" do. Hum.....yellow shampoo in the shower and it appears to be watered down!

On a similar note: You will never see me using an ice bucket. I have heard stories of it being a quick vomit bucket for a sick kid and once in a limo....a urinal. Nope...not touching that thing, even if it has a plastic bag.

 

[Sapper]

Well...then by this definition, I guess I'm a thief. I always bring my own shampoo, conditioner and soap from home and bring the hotel supplied stuff home. Sometimes, they use to get packaged up and given to a local shelter or sent overseas during military collections. Most recently my tween daughter has decided they all belong to her and she treats as samples.

I always just assumed cleaners make a clean sweep of all products in a bathroom and throw it all out, even if unused.

A few TSs we frequent in New England have these and most of the cruise lines....I don't use them. This change won't impact me at all. I'm with some others that always think the worse about what people "could" do. Hum.....yellow shampoo in the shower and it appears to be watered down!

On a similar note: You will never see me using an ice bucket. I have heard stories of it being a quick vomit bucket for a sick kid and once in a limo....a urinal. Nope...not touching that thing, even if it has a plastic bag.

Sooooo..... I'm never touching an ice bucket again.

 

[1Kflyerguy]

I am not a fan of this idea. I agree with Dave, seems prone to sombody doing something bad to the product.

The gym at my work has these, and sometimes the liquid in each container is a different color and something they look identical. Makes me wonder if its same stuff in each bottle.

I suppose these are more environmentally friendly, fewer bottles, so less waste...

but still feel cheap

 

[Passepartout]

So maybe the moral of this story is that if you want free little bottles of shampoo and conditioner and free wi-fi and parking, you stay at Motel 6 and Super 8, and if you want to either use communal toiletries or bring your own and pay a 'resort fee' for the wi-fi and parking, you go to the higher priced 'Deluxe' hotels. REALLY?

 

[dougp26364]

The word “stealing” is more likely dramatic license by whom ever wrote the article, just to generate clicks.