BUFFALO, N.Y. — If you’re planning a trip for 2025, you may need to pack more for your hotel stay next year than you did this summer vacation.
Starting in January, hotels in New York state with more than 50 rooms will no longer be able to provide small bottles containing hospitality care products.
It’s a new state law to help reduce waste. Small bottles refer to any bottle under 12 ounces.
According to the bill, “‘Hospitality personal care product’ means a product provided by a hotel and intended to be applied to or used on the human body or any part thereof for cleansing, conditioning, or moisturizing. Hospitality personal care product includes, but is not limited to, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and liquid soap.”
Beginning in 2026, all hotels in New York will have to follow the small bottle ban.
“I think there’s a lot of reasons for it on the environmental side. It’s a lot of little bottles that get thrown into the garbage and they do pile up,” said Frank Strangio, President of the Niagara Falls Hotel and Motel Association.
According to Strangio, several hotels, including the two he owns in the city’s south end, are already ahead of the new requirement by installing dispensers which, despite the initial cost, will likely save them money in the long run.
“The thing that happens with the small bottles is that in hotel rooms they get used once and they’re about half full. There’s a lot of wasted product when you are using the smaller bottles.”
Money down the drain, so to speak.
While some might presume that hotels just refill the little bottles, Strangio said many can’t and won’t.
“No, you don’t refill those,” he explained, because of concerns over product tampering.
“You want them to be properly sealed so that guests know that what they are using is the product that is supposed to be in there,” he said, while noting the dispensers they’re using now have locks on them to prevent product tampering.
Dispensing products from larger containers also provides another operational advantage according to Strangio.
“Even for the housekeeping staff it’s one less thing you have to replenish on a daily basis, especially during the busy season. So I think in that way there are all kinds of efficiencies as well,” he said.
