A reader who stayed at the Wild Palms Hotel in Sunnyvale, California, which is part of Hyatt’s JdV brand, shared that the property appeared to be using JdV standard amenities in the bathroom – Jonathan Adler brand – but that the housekeeping carts had “bulk, industrial service jugs of DRIFT Hydrated Body Care.”
DRIFT is made and produced by Erwyn Products, a major hospitality industry distributor. They do not appear to carry Johnathan Adler. (JA hospitality amenities are supplied by La Bottega.)
Wild Palms’ own amenities page promises “Jonathan Adler Branded bath toiletries.” If they’re refilling JA‑labeled bottles with a different product, that’s a mismatch with the property’s marketing (and potentially a brand‑standards issue for JdV).
To be clear, the photos show these bulk toiletries actually being poured into the in-room bottles. The hotel could claim the DRIFT is for public restrooms or staff use. But they’re on a guest floor housekeeping cart, which makes that implausible.
Jonathan Adler is what I had during my stay at 50 Bowery in New York earlier this year… I think.
Earlier this year I wrote about Hyatt Regency San Francisco appearing to refill bulk shower toiletries in guest rooms with ‘mystery goop from a commercial ketchup jug’.
I have been concerned about these bulk dispensers in rooms replacing individual toiletry bottles to save money for a long time. There are 5 issues with them.
- Authenticity While some upscale hotels in China have been known to distribute counterfeit branded toiletries even in individual bottles to save money, it’s far more likely that you’re getting what’s on the bottle when it’s in the bottle versus just refilled into a branded package on the wall. You don’t know what you’re really getting when you don’t see the package.
- Security Previous hotel guests might find it funny to put something other than shampoo or bath gel in the bottles, or to mix them up. For instance, someone replaced the soap in dispensers at the Detroit airport with bodily fluid and you don’t know who was staying in your room before you. Some hotels use tamper proof mounting on the walls. Many don’t. Or the mounting is left unlocked.
- Germs You should not believe that the dispensers themselves get thoroughly cleaned and sterilized between guests. Here’s a National Institutes of Health study on bacterial contamination of bulk-soap-refillable dispensers.
- Availability Housekeeping just doesn’t refill these, the way it’s obvious when a bottle has been opened or is missing.
I stayed at the same Marriott Courtyard two weeks in a row where I was assigned the same room both times. My bath gel was empty throughout my first stay, and it was still empty a week later.
- Experience. It’s not a premium experience. There’s no ‘take away’ to remember the stay.
Indeed I use shampoo and bath gel at home that I discovered at a hotel, I imagine many of you do too.
Readers sometimes question whether I’m too cynical, thinking that hotels would refill these branded bottles with something cheaper. But they keep doing it.
