Financial Savings To Wall-Mounted Amenities

The benefits of featuring in-shower amenity dispensers expand beyond the environmental advantages. In fact, offering the wall-mounted dispensers at Best Western Plus Tempe by the Mall, in Tempe, Ariz., has reduced costs for the hotel’s largest budgetary line item: labor.

Gone are the days of stocking housekeeping carts with amenity bottles, daily exchanges of new and used products, and disappearance of liquids from the cart when workers’ backs are turned. Now, housekeepers carry two liquid cartridges on their cart every day. Each cartridge last roughly 40 to 42 days at the hotel, so replacement is infrequent, saving on the time it takes housekeepers to turn over a guest room.

“When cartridges do need replacing, our housekeepers are trained to switch out the products quickly while they are in the room cleaning,” says Jerrold Williams, general manager. “If all three cartridges ran out at the same time, it would take roughly three to six minutes to change out the full dispenser, but they have never all run out at the same time.”

Switching out cartridges is quick and easy for cleaners because each type of liquid is color-coded. The refills are also riveted differently so as not to cross-contaminate products. For example, the shampoo cartridge is riveted so it only fits into the shampoo dispenser. This feature simplifies the process for housekeepers.

The savings associated with the use of these dispensers is obviously not specific to just one line item. In fact, Best Western Plus Tempe continues to find value to the amenities every day.

For example, shifting away from the single-use amenity bottles has saved on labor, but it has also saved on inventory.

“We haven’t even factored inventory costs into our savings yet,” says Rich Schnakenberg, owner/operator, “but we know that time is money and we’ve saved both on stocking, inventory and ordering.”

That said, Schnakenberg has crunched the numbers following the shift to wall-mounted amenities, and he is pleased with the results. After just nine months, the facility is averaging roughly 26 percent in savings.

Add to that the points the facility has earned towards green certifications and the improved perception from hotel guests, and it is obvious that this was a change for the better.

“I am sold on the fact that I have guest acceptance, cost savings and increased eco-positioning,” says Schnakenberg. “It was a small change, but it made a big difference.”  

Benefits Of Wall-Mounted Amenities