Single Use Toiletries At Hotels
I was thinking yesterday, while taking a shower at the Conrad Washington DC, how much I loved the smell of the toiletries in my room. If you remember, I have long loved to collect such things, even at the angst of my wife. That is when it hit me, wait, weren’t single use toiletries supposed to be gone by now? Then I thought back over my last two years of stays, which consisted of many different hotel brands. I couldn’t come up with one stay where I was not provided single use toiletries. That even included limited service brands like my beloved Hyatt Place.
Major Hotel Chains Pledged To Remove Single Use Toiletries
Back in 2019 and early 2020 pretty much every major hotel brand promised to eliminate single use plastics at most of their hotel brands. This was in an effort to eliminate plastic waste which single use toiletries generate a lot of. Marriott, IHG, Hilton, Hyatt and others all made this pledge. Some were supposed to complete this change by the end of 2020 and others by the end of 2021. They would change over to wall dispensers or glass, bulk-sized toiletries. These were already in place at some lower end hotels, as a cost saving measure, but rolling it out to full service brands as well was something new.
It wasn’t a change many travelers were looking forward. They immediately went to the worst possible outcome sense of thinking and shared those dark thoughts with us all. Ryan shared his experience at one such property that already had this system in place and why he liked the change overall.
Covid Threw A Wrench In The plans
So what happened? How come all of the hotels I have been staying at still have single use toiletries? Well, as you know, Covid happened. A few months after all of these brands announced the change the world shut down. People were wiping down their groceries and leaving Amazon boxes outside for a few days etc. It is safe to say…things got weird.
As time has gone on, and we learned more about Covid, we see how crazy all of that was. But, there is still a hesitancy that many people have of co-mingling with others. I think that extends to sharing toiletry items for some and is a big reason why this has been pushed back. I also imagine the staffing issues hotels have struggled with since Covid began haven’t helped either. The last thing the operators want to add to pile of things to do is a large maintenance project like installing and maintaining hundreds of dispensers.
Final Thoughts
While I think the switch from single use toiletries will be done at some point in the near-ish future they have had a stay of execution so to speak. Covid threw a wrench in hotels plans and everything has been put on hold for a bit. Anyone that was not looking toward this change got a few more years to stock up on their favorite brands. Hopefully you can stockpile enough to cover some of your future travels when the changeover finally happens. I know these good smelling ones from Conrad DC will be heading home with me, no matter how big of an eye roll I get from my wife.
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[…] you’ve noticed that those little bottles of shampoo and conditioner are still there because hotels have delayed plans to replace them with bulk containers. This doesn’t mean bans on single-use products in New York, Hawaii and California […]
The war against plastic straws also slowed down during COVID.
True
Airport lounge showers are also switching over. The Star Alliance lounge in LAX, Centurion in IAH, etc. have high quality refillable shampoo, body wash, and conditioner containers.
So instead of 100 smaller bottles, the dumps wil get big gallon jugs instead. No difference in waste.
I have donated thousands of single use items over the years mainly to the Philippines. I know it’s not environmentally conscious but the poor people simply don’t have the money to buy the larger containers. COVID has set back the environmental movement by a decade or more. Imagine how many masks and other PPE have been thrown away In the past 2 years
Very true about masks / PPE
I used to bring the travel sizes home and donate them to the local homeless shelter, but once I realized the environmental impacts and just the waste of money and resource, I’m with Ryan on this one – I think the single use plastics are an abomination! At recent hotel stays, I left notes for housekeeping to NOT throw away the open soap bars – that I would continue to use them, but to no avail. I’d like to think that if the properties spend less on these items, that savings can be passed on to the consumer or be invested in improvements at the property for the consumer to enjoy.
I think they just get into a habit and do it even when asked.
I am glad that I am not the only one who collects these toiletries. Will they bring back pens though? I used to collect those too.
I almost swiped the Conrad pen at breakfast – it was nice 🙂
A local restaurant to me went from having salt and pepper shakers and on-the-table ketchup and vinegar bottles to all those bazilion little packets they give you at drive thru’s.
Packets of ketchup, vinegar, s&p etc
What a waste. They dump the unused ones in the garbage so even MORE waste.
Yeah that is terrible
I’ll miss the single-use items. And I agree: That Shanghai Tang brand smells great. On your next trip to DC stay at the Park Hyatt and stock up on Le Labo products