HotelChatter

I'd like to continue to chime in about this topic, since it's one I'm very passionate about.  If someone is really concerned over bacteria ON the dispensers, they just need to make sure they wash their bodies with the soap IN the dispensers.  Also, they should be just as concerned with having their bodies near shower curtains and the walls of the shower, as I'd venture to guess that most housekeepers don't scrub those very often.

Also, rather than refillable dispensers, there are ones from Sweden with hermetically sealed vacuum refill bags, that's what we use (from GroupeGM through TY Linens), so we think they're more sanitary.

The biggest thing here is our fresh water, energy, landfills and groundwater.  Wall mount product dispensers require less fumbling with tiny bottles (that many guests cannot even read, especially if they wear corrective eye wear!) resulting in shorter showers and less cleaning up of gooey bottles, so that's the savings in water and energy.  

Those tiny bottles come in boxes that come in cases that come on pallets that are shrink wrapped and come on big trucks from a warehouse where all the components came on big trucks from many different warehouses, so that's more energy saved and fewer dumpsters and less landfill space used.  Those bottles are usually mostly full, so there's less chemical leaching into our groundwater, rivers, and oceans.

Finally, there's a savings on payroll, trash disposal and insurance... payroll from less time to clean a bathroom and re-stocking, trash disposal because we use about 12 fewer dumpsters a year, and insurance because our insurance company gave us a nice discount because no bottles = reduced slip and fall claims when people drop the bottles and slip on them and their tiny caps.

So, in closing, our annual savings come to about $309 per room per year... in reduced product costs, reduced water, reduced natural gas, reduced payroll, reduced insurance, reduced waste disposal, etc.  Take a 500 room hotel and that's $154,500 a year in savings!!!  That's huge.

My big beef is that since franchises make money off of franchisees at every corner, including % of amenities, stationary, FF&E, linens, etc., etc. they're very reluctant to move to wall mount dispensers as it results in reduced income for the brand, which is just shameful and unethical and downright irresponsible.

Then again, 2012 is now being coined as "The Year the Franchise Died", the proof is in the data: independent non-franchised business growth is outpacing branded-growth like never before... and there's probably a big reason: brand greed that doesn't offer a proven ROI.