JonasCLT

Checked into St Louis Marriott Grand today and discovered this new idea in the room. Took a minute to see the fine print that they're charging $15 for the bottle. No sign of regular water bottles in the room or the lounge.

I travel with my own water bottle and appreciate efforts to be green, but this seems like a revenue generation opportunity. And seeing as this is a Marriott owned location, probably a matter of time until we see it elsewhere.

rylan

Sorry, I'm not paying Mariott $15+ for a water bottle when on a trip and have to be figuring out how to take it home in my bag or throw it out. They should be providing bottled water in the lounge at a minimum. I would've asked for bottled water.

littlevoices

I agree with you that a USD15 charge is excessive. To share a better way of doing things - there was a similar idea in Australia at the "Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Gold Coast". However in that case I felt it was done much more fairly and I was happy to pay the minor surcharge:

1. The water bottle refill stations were all over the hotel (nearest, 2m from my room door), and offered both still and sparkling water - at cold or room temperature, i.e. more choice than purely bottled water
2. The water bottles themselves were custom made and Marriott branded, i.e. something you couldn't get elsewhere
3. The cost was pretty low, believe 5AUD / 4USD, i.e. it felt like it was being offered at near cost, not as a pure money-making scheme
4. As this is a resort most stays would be multi-day, i.e. you could really make a difference rather than saving a single bottle of water

We took the two bottles we bought with us and my wife uses them. They are fairly simple metal (not as elaborated or branded as your example), but keep water fresh.

PS: I see from the "fill it forward website" that the pricing is perhaps not too dissimilar to their own website, so maybe it is legit, just their partner is a bit pricey: https://fillitforward.com/products/cupanion-bottle/

DCFlyer0306

This is absurd and borderline offensive. Much like the "green" multi-use shampoo bottles (which are plastic and are thrown away when they are empty, so are not really environmentally friendly), this is not environmentally friendly either - it's clearly just a revenue generation scheme. Many people would just end up throwing the bottle away since most people do not leave room in their carry-on bags for a water bottle souvenir. Hopefully, they still have wrapped plastic cups available so you don't have to drink out of the reusable coffee mugs / water mugs that are cleaned with the same rags used to clean the bathrooms. Yuck.

Canarsie

Click here for more information on this absurd initiative.

EuropeanPete

This kind of thing works well in some of the more eco-conscious countries in Europe, but it’s 1. a very different culture and 2. Hotels generally don’t try to charge 1,000% markup. I’d also be somewhat sceptical of any filtered water procured or produced by a Marriott hotel, starting from US tap water which is often not up to international drinking standards.

Trust Marriott to do the right thing the wrong way.

DELee

The lame way.

David

austin_modern

While it appears to be somewhat of a money making scheme just like most others.

Looking quickly at REI yesterday on a different subject - a branded Nalgene bottle is 15 bucks there and at Amazon. I would say this was "excessive" considering the costs now.

storewanderer

I do not agree with this initiative and think these reusable bottles will be thrown out before they are reused enough to have less environmental impact than a traveler who uses a thin single use water bottle or two. I also question the sanitation of said reusable bottles (could you just use it for your stay then leave it in the room when you leave? what if the prior guest who didn't take it wanted that space to put stuff on and threw the reusable for sale water bottle behind the toilet in the bathroom then the maid put it back in place while cleaning the room for the next guest)?

However, I do want to point out that most bottled water in the US is simply bottled tap water from some plant somewhere, sure it is "filtered" but so is the water in the hotel gym... assuming they have replaced the filter in the gym water dispenser... not sure how much different that is from the bottled water is... However if the gym water dispenser filter is of concern, you probably don't want to consume any food or drink on hotel property either as the filters need to be replaced on the water equipment in the bar/restaurant too.

eqeqeqx

Lol. Being from an "eco-conscious country in Europe", this idea sounds just as offensive to me as to others here.
I do have my own water bottle (since I'm from an eco-conscious country in Europe, though I only use it for gym), but couldn't imagine paying USD 15 for some ugly hotel branded bottle of dubious quality. Even less wanting to keep the bottle with me afterwards.

Fly2Connect

It should be free with the requirement that you return it. A water bottle is not fundamentally different than a glass you'd get at any restaurant or hotel room for that matter--no reason why they can't be washed and reused. If it is taken after the stay I could see them applying a charge.

Making every guest get a brand new water bottle that did not bring their own seems exceedingly counter productive to their claimed environmental goals.

nacho

No one in Europe including Sweden will pay $14.95 for an empty bottle to fill up water - for that price you can order a proper thermos at amazon.com - that would keep my drink cold and hot. This is more like a forced donation to whatever charities they feel like donating to.

At Bestheda Marriott many years ago, they provided glass bottles to refill water, and you leave them at the hotel so they clean them and let other guests use them. I think this is the right way to do it - provide loan bottles so that they can stay in a property and this is how we can eliminate use of plastics.

From now on I need to keep a bottle for water if I step into any Marriott if they are doing this chainwide.

FlyingM

Sigh. Expect Less, Pay More! This has nothing to do with the environment, or being green, and everything to do with lining the pockets of Marriot with actual green.

Am I surprised? Not at all.

FlyingM

Honestly. the lids / spouts on plastic water bottles never get fully clean / sterilized well in automatic dishwashing, or hand washing. I really wouldn't want to re-use anything other than a open plastic or glass cup.

EuropeanPete

I’d see two things different between a bottle of Dasani and drinking from a Marriot hotel filter:
First, as you indicate, I’d be concerned as to whether the filters would actually ever be cleaned. It’s not hard to find a U.S. Marriott where filters on air con are obviously way past their service date, for example. I’ll usually not eat on-site at a US hotel, but if I did I would assume the cleanliness standards in the kitchen would probably be far higher than elsewhere in the hotel
Secondly, one of the big issues in US drinking water seems to be lead and other contaminates from out of date and unsafe water pipes. I’m sure/ mainly hope this would be spotted by professional bottled water companies (who probably won’t be pulling from last mile local distribution anyways), but I wouldn’t have any confidence in a $50 filter at a Utah Residence Inn doing that.