Single use shampoos and how many to provide

Manuel621
Level 2
Sydney, Australia

Single use shampoos and how many to provide

Hi, 

 

I am new to hosting and trying to work out what suits me best when it comes to providing shampoo and conditioner. If i state that i offer shampoo and conditioner and i provide single use (travel size) do i then need to provide one per person per day? or just have one travel size for the entire stay?

19 Replies 19
Matt585
Level 2
Pittsburgh, PA

Hi Manuel,

 

I have just started providing shampoo, conditioner and shower gel (soap).  I have found 1 of each in each full bathroom is sufficient.  I leave them for our guests so they have something that can get them through a couple days.  If I get a guest that is there a week or more then I would leave a couple of each.  Hope that helps.

 

Matt

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Manuel621  Many hosts are trying to eliminate single use plastic containers- it's so bad for the environment. What works well is to buy those things in bulk, then have some pump dispensers that can be refilled. The not only are you not contributing to the planet's plastic problem, it's more economical and you can just top them up as needed, without worrying if you're providing enough for a guest's stay.

I love when @Sarah977 write what I think so I don't have to 🙂

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

Please, @Manuel621, avoid single use plastics in every way you can. There is just no need for it. If you are thinking luxury, get a luxury product in larger pack. I know I am repeating what @Sarah977 says but it is worth repeating!

 

I was given a large box of single use stuff from friends who closed their boutique hotel, tried to get rid of it for years by putting bottles in the accommodation but my guests preferred what I had in larger bottles. Gave the box to charity in the end.

Aim for less waste, guests appreciate it. Please.

There is a recycling program for the single use items...its not expensive and it helps provide shower products for the homeless. Its called Clean the World...

With covid and ALL the communicable viruses sharing toiletries guest to guest is NOT ok.

You can have normal size containers that you disinfect after each guest and recycling is not efficient, plus many guests will not care and simply put it in the garbage with rest of the trash. Plus how many people is touching this single use shampoos in warehouse, then in store, then while placing in the unit... They are not virus free...

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

Kath9
Level 10
Albany, Australia

@Manuel621, @Matt585, please, we must start reducing our use of single-use plastics - if you provide a single travel size shampoo for each guest, what will happen is they will use only some of it and the rest will go to landfill (along with its little bottle which will not break down for a thousand years). Please do what @Sarah977 and @Sandra126 have suggested - buy in bulk and dispense into pump packs, then refill as needed. The days of tiny little single-use products are gone!

Matt585
Level 2
Pittsburgh, PA

@Kath9 thanks for the message.  I agree on the need to cut down on the single use plastics.  I buy the recyclable bottles and instruct my property manager on the need to recycle them when the cleaning crew comes in.  That being said I am looking in to installing larger dispensers in the bathrooms which would eliminate the bottles.

 

Matt

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

But @Matt585, it is more than recycling. It is trying to not make the bottles in the first place! If we refuse to use, they will not be made as the profit will be gone, and we don't have to think about them being recycled because they won't exist.

 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Matt585 That's great that you at least are adamant about the recycling. But guests will throw them in the garbage anyway.

What we all need to remember is the 3 Rs of environmental awareness- Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. In that order. Most of us have no idea what happens to the stuff we recycle. There have been many instances of all that stuff having been taken to the landfill anyway. 

I attended a meeting many years ago on garbage issues and recycling. I'll never forget what one woman said- that when people separate their garbage and recycle, they feel virtuous, but all we know is that it goes "away". Just because we can put plastic in a recycling bin, doesn't mean it's solving a problem. We should really be working to eliminate plastics altogether.

@Sarah977, I think of them as the 4 ''r''. not 3. Refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle.

''Refuse'' as in refuse excess packaging, refuse pointless stupid things which will become landfill in a nanosecond etc. It is the biggest of all the ''r''. I know you will already be doing that, you just haven't incorporated the final r in your mantra!

 

I remember the host on the forum recently who said ''but I have never thrown any plastic in the ocean, the garbage man collects it all.'' End of story.

Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

SO TRUE @Sarah977 and @Sandra126 - just because a recycling bin gets emptied at the curbside every other week, doesn't mean it's being dealt with responsibly.  Environmentalists reported a month ago that New Zealand recycling was piling up in Malaysia and being burned in secret by unregulated "pop up" recyclers, that appeared after China stopped taking recycling.  News reporters then went to Malaysia and filmed it all happening, with toxic fumes, waste piles... made me sick.  Soon after that we had some officials from Malaysia visit parliament and (my summary) tell NZ to deal with it's own waste and stop exporting the problem.

 

As much as NZ likes to use the "clean green" brand, there are as many problems to solve here as in many other countries when it comes to over reliance on single use plastics. 

 

On the positive side though, there has been a huge uptake of pastic free produce and products at our local harbourside market.  SO many more people each week, which is awesome.  The milk seller (you can fill your own containers from the chilled milk truck that drives up) has had to put on 4 times the milk, there has been so much more business.  Plus the Hippie Straw company popped up, Ecopack expanded, the "bee paper" stall has grown... this stuff has been there for a long while, but it's been a case of sellers convincing people to be responsible.  Now, it has switched and people are seeking them out.

Matt585
Level 2
Pittsburgh, PA

@Sarah977@Sandra126 I agree with everything your saying and I'll  get there.  As a new-ish host I'm still learning as I go.  Thanks for the comments. I really do appreciate them.

 

Matt