IHG Switching to Bulk-Size Bathroom Amenities At Nearly 843,000 Rooms Worldwide

Love them or hate them, small plastic bathroom amenity bottles are vanishing from an ever-growing number of hotel rooms. In May 2018, both Marriott and IHG announced plans to ditch the mini-bottles at certain brands.

Now the InterContinental Hotels Group is announcing the end of mini-bottles at all of its hotels. The hotel group will transition its entire portfolio of almost 843,000 guest rooms to "bulk-size bathroom amenities." The process is expected to be completed by mid-2021.

IHG points out that this pledge "makes IHG the first global hotel company to commit all brands to removing bathroom miniatures in favour of bulk-size amenities."

A number of IHG brands have already made the transition. Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites and Holiday Inn Express have been in the process of switching over since the May 2018 announcement. Over 1,000 Holiday Inn Express properties have already completed the switch. In addition, three of IHG newest brands have had bulk-size bathroom amenities since their launch: EVEN Hotels, Avid and Voco.

CEO Keith Barr says that these efforts have led to "almost a third of our estate already adopting the change." Still, IHG reports using an average of 200 million bathroom miniatures every year worldwide.

Although IHG hasn't shared the amount of plastic reduction from these efforts so far, the Voco Gold Coast -- the first hotel to transition to the Voco brand -- reportedly achieving a 80% reduction in plastic waste from the transition to bulk bathroom amenity bottles.

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This is another step forward for IHG in reducing its plastic waste. In October 2018, IHG announced it would eliminate all single-use plastic straws from its portfolio by the end of 2019 -- a commitment it confirmed in Tuesday's announcement.