CloudCoder

"Thank you for being a globalist and here's your free bottle of water" seems to be a 2017 thing. In 2018, unless you specifically _ask_ for water, it's seldom offered.

9 Hyatt stays so far this year.
- 2 outside USA (water offered in abundance)
- 1 at a hotel where water is available in the mini-bar for all guests
- 6 stays: water NOT offered unless you specifically ask

To be fair, I always arrive _late_ at night after a full days work and/or travel. Perhaps the graveyard shift isn't fully trained.

Referring to WoH terms and conditions, they do say that you must specifically ask for water. It's unclear whether you must ask _only_ at hotels which give you an empty bottle, or at all hotels. In my experience, it's All Hotels In The USA. I wonder if this is a new Hyatt trend, where you have to specifically ask for each and every benefit?

If it's any consolation, Starwood is equally crappy: you have to specifically ask for your free bottle of water.

From WoH terms and conditions. (all three tiers get the same water benefit):

Aventine

My Globber profile states I like extra water in the room, suite, villa but not every property cares to oblige. The only time I've never had water is if I'm switched to a brand new room and the profile requests didn't carry over.
North America
PH NY has child sized bottles and kind of chintzy with them. Slow to bring them upon request. Ended up needing like 8 mini bottles if you're making coffee or trying to drink your daily needs. Andaz 5th had their interesting mini bar that was never fully stocked. At least their NY state water was a full size.

Outside NA
Generally, quite plentiful and full sized.
PHs Seoul, Busan, Tokyo, - 4 minimum and some refrigerated like I requested. GH Seoul only 2 in room.

CloudCoder

It just seems like, more and more, we have to specifically ask for our benefits:
- bottle of water
- late checkout
- best room available
- bonus points
- breakfast charges removed from bill
- etc.

Call me nostalgic, but I still remember the Good Old Days where hotels delivered on their written promises without your having to specifically ask them to keep each individual promise.

MSPeconomist

I'm still missing the Diamond welcome amenity being offered, with being asked to choose a food item and a beverage plus a delivery time at check in.

mahasamatman

I'm happy to hear Hyatt is being more environmentally responsible. By the year 2020, there wil be more plastic in the oceans than fish. I have never been to a hotel that didn't have safe drinking water available right from the tap.

Another reason I love Starwood.

Which apparently you posted without reading. To wit,Each hotel is free to determine whether or not to provide bottled water at their discretion.

jpdx

You must not have been to a lot of places in Asia/Africa/etc. There are many locations where you absolutely can't assume that "safe drinking water" will come from the tap. I agree that plastic bottles are terrible for the environment, and I have participated in our local campaign to ban retailers from using plastic bags, but there most certainly are locations where I only drink bottled water.

JackE

How will the plastic bottle I recycle in Topeka end up in the ocean as part of some dubious statistic?

paolo64

A couple of decades ago, before our obsession with bottled water, it was not unusual for hotel rooms to have a separate, plumbed feed of drinking water ( as an extra line in the bathroom sink). Now that's never seen, not even in new builds.
I prefer my own insulated water bottle, and would fill it for use if a clean source were provided, but now the only source is the bottled water in the room/lounge, thereby defeating the purpose from an environmental perspective.

craigthemif

Agreed, but it still makes far more "green" sense for a hotel to offer a filtered or bottled water dispenser for guests to refill their own containers. At best these things are hidden away in the gym, rather than in the lobby or executive lounge.

You mention two parts of the world where indeed you don't want to be drinking from the tap, but also can't rely on the plastic being recycled or treated in a responsible manner.

jpdx

It's not like those "parts of the world" don't have any hotels that deliver water in refillable glass bottles to the rooms; these hotels are just generally more upscale, boutique-y, or eco-themed. I suspect that for large chain hotels like Hyatt, you wouldn't get hotel owners onboard. A bigger problem still may be that in those "parts of the world" not a small number of travelers will be conditioned to expect bottled water as the "safe" option.

Even in places with safe drinking water, there may be travelers who are not monsters and still would like to receive the water bottle the program promises -- for instance, business travelers who take the water bottle to the car to the morning when they leave the hotel.

JackE

My personal experience is the opposite. Except in weird properties that have refilling stations instead of bottled water, I've mostly seen properties very proactive in providing water -- sometimes more than one per day. I mostly travel in California.

mnredfox

GH and Hyatt Olive 8 in SEA last week said water in the rooms were free for me (despite the tags saying $5).

jiaogulan

It's so true. Traveling, and especially dealing with hotels and airlines, has made me a much more assertive person. Otherwise you just leave so much on the table... It does get old having to ask for things so often that you feel like you shouldn't have to, though.

LIH Prem

Not sure which are the 6 properties mentioned by OP, but this is what I tend to see these days ... this one is 1L bottle of Aquafina, 2 in the room with the same tag, replaced each day during our stay.

zombietooth

At the Conrad Koh Samui, they have been using glass bottles for years. The bottles have the inevitable scuffs and scrapes from being reused so many times, but I fully support this sort of thing to reduce waste plastic in countries with marginal water systems. In the US, I always drink tap water. If I am backpacking or hiking-in to a job site, I always use canteens filled with delicious tap water.

The bottled water industry has really conned the public about the supposed "contaminants" in tap water. As always, you should, "follow the money". Penn and Teller did a documentary showing that bottled water is no safer than tap water in most US locations. Here is a short clip of their show: