Hotel toiletries

Having recently stayed in two different hotels, I wanted to spend some time on the toiletries.

This may seem minor, but there are two issues that are important. One is a trend toward more environmental concern. It has been common for a while now for hotels to automatically leave instructions on how to get your sheets changed, which is no longer automatically done daily. There are also instructions for how to reuse your towels. This may have started in drought-stricken places, but it is a good thing, and good that it has spread.

Perhaps that led to more attention being paid to how toiletries are delivered. The tiny bottles can be a huge source of plastic in land fills or the ocean. Still, there are sanitary issues for consideration.

All of this matters more with travel restrictions on what you can bring on the plane, and airlines charging for all checked baggage. I used to take my own condition and face wash and everything and think nothing of it. Now I need to have small bottles fitting in one plastic bag, or pay $25 to check the bag. This makes me more interested in what hotels offer.

The Paramount Hotel in Portland, Oregon, using Gilchrist and Soames: http://www.gilchristsoames.com/

On the counter there was a regular soap bar, as well as a skin care bar, mouth wash, body lotion, a shower cap, and bath salts (a nice addition since they had a soaking tub with jets). Also, in addition to tissue, which is pretty common, they also had a container of cotton swabs, which was a nice touch to have in the room, though I have been in hotels where you could get them at the desk.

One thing that seemed odd was that despite these being small bottles and individual packages, they said you could get individual packages and shower caps at the front desk. I suspect that really means you can get more shower caps there, and maybe individual packets of bath salts.

I did not use the bath salts or the face bar. I did use the mouth rinse, and it was strong! This is more like Scope than Act or Plax, basically. The regular soap and the shower cap were fine, but I could not get the lotion out of the bottle. I think it just needed a touch more viscosity, but that was frustrating. I guess you could use the cotton swabs for digging the lotion out, but that would be messy.

The shower had dispensers  of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash from Gilchrist and Soames' Bee Kind line. These were great. I only used the body wash and conditioner, but they felt good, had good scents, and you can totally see how these bottles are refilled, and thus do prevent waste. The holder they are in seems well equipped to prevent theft or tampering, though I didn't test that particular issue.

Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Spa in Anaheim, California, using H20+: https://www.h2oplus.com/

On the counter there were tissues, facial soap, a shoe mitt and shower cap, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and body lotion. There was also a Softened Mint Foot Rub and Solar Relief Gel, which I thought was a nice touch for a place where vacationers will be walking and in the sun a lot.

There was then body soap in the shower. I did not notice a huge difference between the body and facial soap, but neither had that dryness that would be the main concern with using hotel soap. In addition, it was cool that the castle logo was not only on the packages but also imprinted on the soap.

For the other products, the lotion flow was great, which I appreciated, but the conditioner bottle only let out half of the conditioner. This meant that I needed a new bottle each day, even though there was enough in the bottle for another day. That cemented my appreciation for the dispensers the Paramount used.

The other issue was that the lotion scent was overdone, where even after the lotion was absorbed the smell was clinging to my hands. It's not that washing your hands is bad, but feeling a need to do it right after putting on lotion is not great.

In no case would any of these weaknesses have ruined the trip, but there are things that can be improved, and there are good processes in place that can be adopted. I question how valuable the liquids restrictions are, and I know I think that being charged for your first checked bag is stingy, but we're there. It can be an opportunity to be more efficient, to plan better, and to balance the needs of the earth and ourselves.

I promise you, we need the earth.