HotelChatter

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.