Guide — guest amenity formats
Single-dose, 100 ml bottle, 500 ml refillable bottle, bar soap, bulk format for public areas. What separates them is not the product inside: it is what each one asks of your operation, and the volume it obliges you to buy.
Price per litre is not what separates them. At the entry level, a 30 ml bottle at €0.25 works out at around €8.30 per litre — roughly what a 5 L bulk container costs per litre. The cost gap does not come from the rate. It comes from the volume you are obliged to supply per stay, and from how much of it goes in the bin.
One bottle per product per stay, replaced on every arrival. Placing this format on the market stops in the EU on 1 January 2030, whatever the packaging is made of.
The in-between format: refillable, but small enough to be laid out, given away or taken home.
The standard in-room refillable format, filled from a 5 L bulk container.
A companion at the basin, or a welcome gesture to take home — never a substitute for the liquids. In a disposable sachet it falls under the same 2030 deadline as single-dose; presented unwrapped, it falls outside it.
Wall-mounted dispensers for spas, changing rooms, shared washrooms and high-traffic areas.
| Format | Unit price | Which is € / L | Volume bought per stay | Wasted product |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single-dose 30 ml | €0.20–0.30 | ≈ €8.30 | 30 ml per product | High |
| Single-dose 30 ml premium | €0.65–1.10 | ≈ €21.70 | 30 ml per product | High |
| 100 ml refillable bottle | ≈ €1.50 | ≈ €15.00 | As consumed | Low |
| 500 ml refillable bottle | €7–10 | €7.80–14.00 (5 L refill) | As consumed | Very low |
| Bar soap 30 g | ≈ €0.70 | — | 1 small bar | High |
| Bar soap 200 g | ≈ €6.50 | — | As it turns over | Low |
| Bottle holder | €9 single · €16 triple · €15 anti-theft | — | Capital | — |
Three constraints decide it, in this order: average length of stay, which sets how often you resupply a room; exposure to theft, which settles how the bottles are fixed; and level of service, which does or does not allow a different format in the suites.
The product itself — its formulation, its scent, its brand — is chosen afterwards. That is the reverse of the usual order, and it is why so many properties end up with a format that will not sit on a housekeeping trolley.
If the format is already in place and the real question is whether it was chosen or inherited, the eight questions of the diagnostic settle it in five minutes.
Because with single-dose you are not buying the volume consumed: you are buying the volume supplied. A 30 ml bottle laid out for a two-night stay goes in the bin well started and rarely empty. At the same price per litre, the format that only charges for what is used wins — not on its rate, but on what it saves you buying.
This is the one case where single-dose still makes sense, as a premium miniature or as something to take home. A different range in the suites, or an extra product for a VIP stay, gets noticed and pays for itself — far more than a change of cosmetic applied uniformly across the whole hotel.
What that differentiation actually costs works out room type by room type: range by room type →
Bulk format, every time. Public areas have neither the one-guest-at-a-time use nor the perception constraints of a bedroom: there, format is an operational and hygiene question, not an experience one. It is also where refillable wins fastest, with no argument about premium.
Alongside the liquids, yes; instead of them, no. A 30 g bar at the basin is used two or three times and thrown away, and the guest who takes it home ends up with a wet bar at the bottom of a washbag. The 200 g format lasts, and works well where turnover is low. A bar of soap does not compare to a bottle: it compares to another welcome gesture.
It is the most widespread fear and the least tested. What reads as premium is the bottle, its finish, how the name is printed on it, and whether anyone has told the guest what they are holding. A well-drawn screen-printed bottle on a stainless bracket reads better than a plastic miniature on a tray — whatever is inside either of them.
It is the second of ten objections, each with its own verdict: the common objections →
On a refillable format meant to last, hot stamping. A stuck-on label eventually lifts in bathroom humidity, and it is the whole bottle that gets replaced. The criterion looks cosmetic; it drives replacement frequency, and so the real cost.
Real cost calculator → price both options on your own volumes
Supplier comparison grid → compare on 15 checkable criteria
Switchover plan → change format without breaking service
Pre-opening checklist → if the property is not open yet
The recommendations above are simple rules applied to your three answers. They are not an audit: a property can have good reasons to keep a format flagged here as poorly suited.
Last updated:
Until 1 January 2030. On that date, Regulation (EU) 2025/40 stops economic operators placing on the market single-use packaging for cosmetics, hygiene and toiletry products for use in the accommodation sector, intended for an individual booking only. No member state has a national ban in force before that deadline.
Two points of reading overturn common conclusions. First, the text names no material for this format: moving the sachet to card or paper does not take it out of scope. Second, it sets no volume threshold — the test is what the packaging is intended for, not how big it is.
In practice this does not change what the selector above recommends, which reasons on operations and on cost today. It changes how long that choice commits you for: a multi-year contract, or a bathroom drawn now, both run past the deadline. The text, the dates and the sources →