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Hotels Are Searching for Sexy Toiletry Dispensers

November 5, 2008 at 3:48 PM | by juliana | 5 Comments

Hey there! Remember when we created a guide to Hotel Toiletries? And we listed all of our favorite hotel toiletries, then we asked you to drop in your best hotel toiletry sightings? You do? Ok well, we are really regretting those stories right now.

While we love snatching up the mini-toiletry bottles to take home with us (especially if the products are from Fresh or Kiehl's), we recently learned of something that we didn't even think of once in our toiletry buzz--the amount of waste those cute little bottles create. D'oh.

So it's no wonder that hotels are trying to reduce the amount of waste they produce by using toiletry dispensers. For one, they can call themselves "green" hotels in doing so. And second, using dispensers is actually a heck of a lot cheaper. Ben Bethel the owner of the Clarendon Hotel in Phoenix, says using dispensers means hotels will be spending less money on ordering those little bottles and less money on trying to get rid of the waste.

But the question is: how can you find a dispenser that fits in with the crazy/sexy/cool vibe of a hotel?


Aloft dispensers.

Bethel plans to start using wall-mounted dispensers in his hotel starting in 2009 but has been a bit conflicted about the design of the dispensers. As he should be. To walk into a hotel bathroom and see a gym or spa-shower dispenser on the wall is a major turn-off. Like the ones we saw at Aloft--yuck.

Yet there are some good examples of dispensers out there. Bethel passed along this photo of a dispenser from Gilchrist & Soames and we likey! Those look really good.


Gilchrist & Soames dispenser.

Also, the newly-opened SLS Hotel has extra-large sized bottles of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. Since we couldn't take pictures on the tour, all we can do is tell you the bottles are white and feature an SLS and Philippe Starck-inspired drawing on the front. The products are special SLS toiletries, no major brand here.

At the Omm Hotel in Barcelona, they simply used chrome dispensers with the Omm logo (picture at top.) The Gaia Anderson Hotel in Napa Valley is also using dispensers. A few more hotels that already use toiletry dispensers: Hyatt Regency Boston, Element Lexington, Leonardo Hotel Munich (just for hand and body wash), Hotel Triton in San Francisco (on the eco-floor) and The Jane Hotel in New York (in the shared bathrooms.)

And in our inbox today arrived an email from Baudelaire, an importer of natural soaps and body-care products, who has just announced their in-room Dispenser Program. Those look pretty too (pictured below.) And Baudelaire says the dispenser program's refillable five-liter bottles cost hotels up to 70 percent less than buying those little bottles. No doubt an attractive incentive for hotels in this shaky economy.


Baudelaire dispensers.

Of course, should this trend really take off we are going to miss stuffing those high-end toiletry bottles into our suitcases at the end of our trips. Thankfully, we have enough Ritz-Carlton mouthwashes to last us, oh, at least for another month.

Hate 'em or Love 'em: What do you think of in-room dispensers? And have you seen any sexy-looking ones? Let us know if you have.

5 Comments

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  1. abigailmschilling

    HotelChatter Member

    Gilchrist & Soames

    I would totes not be able to figure out how to work that.
    November 5, 2008 at 4:03 PM
  1. juliana

    HotelChatter Editor

    i think...

    you push on the bottom of the square like where the label is.
    November 5, 2008 at 4:50 PM
  1. hartss

    HotelChatter Member

    Oh no

    I will actually have to spend money on shampoo, condtioner and soap now!  I have drawers full of high-end stuff.  This is yet another hot to the old wallet.  Oh, well.
    November 5, 2008 at 9:05 PM
  1. bbphx

    HotelChatter Member

    Red Flower...

    By the way, I noticed that the Valley Ho in Scottsdale has some wonderful Red Flower dispensers in their spa.... maybe they'll start to integrate this in their guest rooms...
    November 7, 2008 at 2:44 AM
  1. JDOCO15

    HotelChatter Member

    sexy toiletries

    My wife and I recently started a biz looking to expand on this concept. http://www.intimatesurprises.com An intimacy kit should include a little bit more than a couple of condoms, a lube and a towelette, for crying our loud that sounds like something a lady of the night would carry in her purse. Our thought is that an intimacy kite should be more than this. How about a nice warm heart massager, a nice warming massage oil, a a stimulating a gel, an erotic short story, a personal massager, a satin sleep mask. Couples wnat more than a wham bam thank you ma'am. They wanta little romance, sensuality, eroticism and passion. That's what an intimacy kit Should be.
    November 10, 2008 at 2:24 PM

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