The environmentally friendly, economical way to go
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These developments in the retail sector have also filtered through to the hotel industry. The revolution in amenity dispensers is widely accepted by today's environmentally conscious hotel guests and enables hotels, motels and resorts to provide their guests with what they also prefer to use at home: liquid soap, body washes and high quality shampoos in stylish dispensers.
Roland Funk, director of Swisstrade, a leading manufacturer in Australian amenity dispensers, believes there are a huge number of benefits that speak for the use of dispensers instead of the traditional portion control amenities in hotel rooms.
"The most obvious benefit is no doubt the drastic reduction of waste. It is estimated that the world's hotels and motels must dispose of over 10 billion pieces of packaging from bathroom amenities every year... most liquid amenities are only partly used and the soap bars are at best used once or twice a night. The environmental impact when you consider this is alarming," said Mr Funk. "The use of dispensers in hotel rooms can reduce this waste drastically, as the contents of one dispenser refill usually equals up to 40 or 50 portion control bottles or approximately 60 to 80 small soap bars," he said.
Cost savings are substantial too, explains Mr Funk. "The hotelier can save up to 50 per cent of his expenditure for guest amenities, simply by implementing dispenser products in the bathrooms. The maths is quite simple; once you have dispensers in place, you will no longer pay for the individual packaging or for the partly used portions that have to be discarded.
"Room servicing time is also reduced. Everybody is familiar with the stubborn soap scum that builds up around the basin and needs to be scrubbed in the shower and bath tubs on a regular basis. These issues are no longer of concern when using liquid products. Liquid soaps are a completely different formulation from a bar soap because they do not contain oil or fat components. In fact, liquid soaps do not only eliminate soap scum but they can also more easily incorporate and retain beneficial ingredients, such as vitamins, essential oils, moisturiser, antiseptics and fragrances, which tend to evaporate quickly in cake soap," he said.
There are a number of amenity dispenser products available on the New Zealand market. However they differ quite substantially in how they work, the quality of product they contain and how they present in the bathroom. Not all of these dispensers are ideal for the accommodation industry explains Mr Funk.
"Refillable dispensers are cost effective because the hotelier can top up the liquids with bulk product. However refillable dispensers are not a hygienically safe choice and should only be used by the basin (liquid soap).
"We do not recommend refillable dispensers to be installed in the showers, due to mould build up and possible germ contamination while refilling shampoo, which later comes into in contact with skin and eyes. Public area dispensers that are often bulky and contain a lot of wearing parts, such as levers, springs and valves, are not ideal for application inside hotel or motel rooms. These dispensers are often too bulky and require frequent maintenance," Mr Funk said.
"Dispensers with membrane valves are another alternative. These dispensers can be cheap to purchase, but most membranes are inferior, which makes them leak and drip. Additionally, membrane dispensers often dispense too much product, increase consumption and are therefore dearer to run. Factory sealed, cartridge type dispensers which are tamper proof, securely locked and hygienic, are the safe bet for the hotelier," he said.
In a hotel environment Mr Funk says owners need to consider the time it takes to refill these dispensers in every room, clean up any mess or spillages, and maintain and exchange any wearing parts such as pumps, springs or levers.
"If one considers all these factors, it is cheaper and smarter to use a factory sealed dispenser, especially in today's environment, where no hotelier wants to take the risk of negative guest feedback or even litigation," he said.
Jean Charles, an Australian owned company, has manufactured dispensers for more than 15,000 rooms throughout Australia.
Owner of Jean Charles, Effie Stamiris, says dispensers are a cost effective way of upgrading guest amenity products.
"With environmental awareness at its highest, consumers are becoming more concerned about using products that have high packaging waste. Our hotel dispensers dramatically reduce waste," said Ms Stamiris.
"The response to our dispensing system has been overwhelming. Feedback has shown that guests are very impressed with this environmentally friendly system," she said.
For accommodation providers wanting to install amenity dispensers throughout their property accommodation providers should:
• Look for a dispenser that suits the presentation of their bathroom.
• Aim for a factory sealed amenity dispenser for hygiene reasons.
• Ensure monitoring the product level inside the dispenser is simple and easy to do. Tiny monitoring windows often lead to staff overlooking the fact that the dispenser is empty. Guests could complain.
• Ensure dispensers do not leak or drip.
• For hygiene reasons, choose a dispenser where the guest does not need to touch the dispenser valve in order to dispense product.
• Test the quality of the liquid product provided with the dispenser. Runny products and liquids which do not lather up will result in over use by guests.
• Ensure the dispenser is lockable, theft and tamper proof.
"The latest trend is to present amenity dispensers in visually attractive and often colourful containers. This way the hotelier does not need to hide his dispensers. On the contrary, these dispensers add to the décor of the entire bathroom," said Mr Funk.
"Additionally, hoteliers are able to promote to their guests the environmentally responsible initiative they are taking by offering amenity dispensers instead of supplying portion control items," he added.
