My Newest Hotel Pet Peeve

by joeheg

Our recent hotel stays have been mostly free of minor annoyances. This could be because hotels are getting better, but more likely it’s because we weren’t staying at hotels much over the past 2 years. Now that our travels are returning to 2019 levels, I’m starting to notice things that annoy me again.

Not because they’re big things, but because they’re things that someone should have realized beforehand, better known as pet peeves. Surprisingly, many of my annoyances are with hotel showers.

I’ve listed several of my grievances:

While those issues deal with the shower design, my most recent gripe is with the bath products in the shower.

This Courtyard by Marriott hotel provided bulk-use products from 39° NORTH, which Marriott owns. On the first day of our stay, I turned on the water and got into the shower. There I was faced with three bottles. But which one is the shampoo, body wash or conditioner?

a group of bottles on a tile wall

Maybe, there are only two choices, as some hotels only offer shampoo/conditioner combo and body wash. Or this hotel that had two shower gels and a conditioner. At least it wasn’t a 3-in-1 wash meant for everything.

However, I was already wet in the shower and without my glasses. There was no way I was going to tell which bottle was which from reading. I ended up pumping a bit from each container to determine the contents.

It wasn’t until I finished my shower that I went back and gave the bottle a closer look.

a grey bottle with green text on it

What packaging design expert decided it would be a good idea to use forest green text on a grey bottle? Also, this picture is zoomed in with my phone camera and the contrast is adjusted to make it easier to read.

I thought I was the only one who noticed this design flaw, but later that day, someone in our group mentioned the same issue while trying to figure out the contents of the products in the shower.

Like it or not, bulk dispensers are here to stay. The least that hotels can do is make sure guests can read what product is in each container while they’re in the shower.

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

Image by Jan Claus from Pixabay

2 comments

Mark H August 25, 2022 - 1:27 pm

I just had this problem at Disney World. At least the three pumps are different colors, so once I figured that out, remembering it was a little easier. But I had a really hard time reading them, especially since the pumps are so low and they are locked in a cage that make it hard to read from anything but straight on.

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JohnB August 25, 2022 - 3:11 pm

I hate those hotel pumps. Many hotels use products with preservatives that bother my skin. I won’t even try them. Just think of what some other guest might put in or touch them with….ewe!

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