It’s hard to imagine a time when bottled water with the hotel logo, branded water (Aquafina, Dasani) or designer water (Fiji, Evian, etc.) was a perk for guests staying in higher-end hotels and resorts. Today, drinking water dispensing systems and filling stations—including those offering a choice of still, sparkling or hot water—are becoming the rule rather than the exception. This is thanks in part to a wellspring of interest in water filtration systems and an overarching demand for eco-friendly operations among companies and consumers.
Consequently, as progress streams forward, water dispensation points have expanded from hotels’ public areas into guest rooms, kitchens, spa facilities and other spaces behind the scenes at properties at every price point.
Filtration systems from companies such as Culligan’s “Quench,” Vivreau, Boomerang Water and others are extending the value proposition for the guest beyond drinking water and cleaner shower and bath experiences. With these systems in place, the tide of support among hotel management, food service personnel, staff and guests is on the rise.
Checking In
The Hotel Bardo in Savannah, GA, offers a perfect case study in how design firms and their hotel clients work synergistically to install and customize a water filtering system.
“Vivreau offered us a water solution that aligned with our goals on every level: beautifully designed, functionally refined and operationally smart,” said Huxley Hogeboom, EVP of design & development at Left Lane Hospitality, which developed the property. “Within our first year, the cost savings over bottled service were tangible, and guest response consistently positive. It’s a detail people notice and genuinely appreciate. Replacing in-room plastic water bottles and table-service bottled water with Vivreau’s dispensers and glass bottles has delivered more than a sustainability win, it’s a bottom-line boost.”
The Hotel Bardo’s self-serve refill stations cut purchasing costs for single-use bottles and eased the workload for housekeeping, according to Hogeboom. In its Saint Vibiana restaurant, a back-of-house Vivreau V3-201 provides an endless supply of chilled still and sparkling water for table service, eliminating the recurring expense and storage of imported pre-package bottled service without sacrificing presentation or the guest experience.
A successful test case for Bay Area-based Epic Cleantec, an up-and-coming water filtration company, has been the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, the firm’s first live and operational “OneWater” system for the hospitality industry. While it is lining up several hotel and resort clients for 2026 and beyond, its two year run at the five-star hotel is setting the stage for the future of diversified water filtration systems developed for hotels and resorts.
CEO Aaron Tartakovsky is so confident of success moving forward that he describes the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills’ system as “one of the smartest in the market as company and hotel management can see what is happening simultaneously.” He added that Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills management staff will be able to pull up their iPads and be better able to control the operation of every valve and pump themselves. By doing this, Epic Cleantec clients will be able to operate the system themselves, optimizing energy usage and reducing the period of time that Epic Cleantec’s operators need to be on site as well as chemical usage.
Epic Cleantec systems will become more efficient and higher performing, which will reduce the client properties’ costs, both on the manpower side as well as the energy side.
“There is no silver bullet water solution,” Tartakovsky said. “We are focusing on a holistic approach to building Epic Cleantec. With solutions like ours, hotels and resorts are not just replacing one, two or 3 percent of their water usage ... they are replacing up to 50 percent or more. This means we are helping reduce the amount of water that a property pulls in from the municipal supply wherever it is located by upwards of 50 percent. That’s pretty significant, especially in a place like California where we have most of our clients and projects where clients are recycling tens of thousands of gallons a day. (Clients) are seeing water and sewer bills and utility reductions in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.”
Quenching the Sustainability Thirst
“We began noticing an uptick in interest from the higher end hospitality sector beginning in 2019-2020,” observed John Notte, VP Sales, Boomerang, whose clients include The Four Seasons Boca Raton and the Statler Hotel in Cornell, N.Y. “This trend has accelerated in the post-pandemic era as hotels and resorts increasingly prioritize more sustainable hydration solutions to meet growing guest expectations. This trend has paralleled the consumer behavior of carrying your own reusable bottle and the availability of water in more sustainable, single-use packaging like aluminum and paperboard.”
Epic Cleantec, born out of a collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was founded a decade ago with a mission to develop water recycling technology in response to public demand for more sustainable operations. In 2020, it entered the market with recycling systems covering a wide swath of businesses. Although Epic Cleantec’s hospitality business sector is still a work in progress, Tartakovsky acknowledged hotel and hospitality are a natural fit, especially as water touches every aspect of the operations and business.
“The status quo is no longer sustainable,” Tartakovsky affirmed, hoping the success with OneWater at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills can drive other companies to make installing a filtration system a priority. “Two years on, we’re starting to see more hospitality owners and operators looking at our product and saying, ‘Maybe we should be doing something like this because it actually not only does save us money, but it’s something that our guests are actively seeking out.’”
While numerous hotels have centralized bottling hubs in place that allow them to provide reusable bottles in room, Daniel Marquiss, VP of service at Vancouver, Canada-based Vivreau, said client demand is trending towards installing point-of-use systems in the room, especially in cases where premium suites and wellness focused-amenities are a draw for the clients.
“Water is omnipresent in our lives,” said Marquiss, who cited current clients, including Hotel Bardo, Savannah, GA, Fairmont Copely Plaza in Boston, and Boston Harbor Hotel, providing quantifiable resorts. He added that the company’s new IoT platform is designed to enhance the systems’ filtration technologies with real-time monitoring. He pointed out that buildings globally use 15 percent of all water the public consumes, but few buildings reused tha water. Tackling that challenge is the company’s ultimate mission.
While the benefits of filtration systems include filtering out microplastics, heavy sediment and other impurities, Marquiss points out that the impact of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on the environment is of widespread concern among Vivreau clients. In response, the company is now setting up a group to look at the best ways to eliminate PFAS from water and prevent them from getting back into the water ecosystem.
“The hospitality industry is a great place to do this, as consumers want to put their money towards businesses that agree with their values,” he explained. “As hotels use an incredible amount of water for cooling, for laundry, for irrigation and drinking, they are great candidates for what we do, which is drive water reuse. We are putting efforts and resources into understanding how we can be ahead of the basic requirements, as well as looking at expanding our point-of-entry systems and point-of-view systems for 2026. This will allow us to integrate updates more readily into existing buildings, building infrastructures, management systems of those hotels as well.”
Science and Sensibility
“We are starting to see an increase in request for in-room and in-suite filtration systems,” said Katy DiMare, vice president of sales at Culligan-Quench. “More and more travelers are beginning to be water aware. They are seeking filtered water on-demand to refill their personal reusable water bottles. I think we will continue to see an increase in this request with the caveat of more requests for sparkling water on-demand. With Zip Water’s HydroTaps, we are able to provide cold, hot and sparkling filtered water on-demand through elegant and modern sink faucets.”
However, DiMare added that hotel clients turning to Quench’s products and services are also looking for support as they work to reduce their environmental impact by shifting to bottle-less water filtration coolers. The next step forward in serving existing customers in reducing their environmental impact is through the introductions of IoT (Internet of Things) technology, which she projects will make it easier for clients to reduce the number of unnecessary filter changes, and in turn, the amount of plastic used in a filter change and the CO2 emitted from service vehicles.
“The next big technology we are seeing in our products is using Smart Technology and IoT technology to provide more efficient and effective customer service for our hotel customers,” she continued. “By tapping into IoT technology, we will be able to replace filters the minute they are less effective, track water usage and troubleshoot/solve any potential issues before they become an issue. This will mean less downtime for our hotel customers and by extension their guests.”
Marquiss, meanwhile, details Vivreau’s new IoT system will enable them and their clients to track water conditions, filter performance and end user patterns. While AI and online products are central to Vivreau’s innovation road map moving into 2026 and beyond, its recently launched “IQ” solution takes this further by using machine learning to analyze water dispenser usage, detect any anomalies and optimize service schedules to arm customers with a better working knowledge of how their system works.
“This allows us to (track) when those filters are at the end of life so that we can then go to our clients and maintain their water drinking systems in a more timely fashion,” he continued, noting his firm offers a range of specialized professional filtration solutions designed to support food service environments and applications such as espresso and hot water machines, tea and coffee brewers, cold brewer systems, ice machines, combi-ovens and steam units, which ensures consistent water quality that enhances the food, protects the equipment and supports hygiene standards.
“Before that filter’s exhausted, we’re bringing clients predictive maintenance, which allows us to reduce downtime to maintain consistency and guest satisfaction in hotels when it comes to their drinking water experience. We’re combining that with our digital assistant, which means customers and users can interact with the dispenser itself, to learn more about the benefits the system offers to guests (hydration), the environment, and other things around the hotel. Our customers can access support 24/7, 365 days of the year, (with) our digital assistant,” he added.
On Tap for 2026
“We always talk about the sustainability features of a system as this is something hotel or resort guests want to see during their stay,” Marquiss said. “However, at the end of the day, the decision (a client’s management makes on what system works best) is always based on the financial payback for the property. Ultimately, it always comes down to implementing these technologies and reusing your water on site, and reducing your water and sewer utility bills—and then based on the property—by X percent. That’s the key driver everyone wants to reduce their ongoing operational costs.”
Beyond that, other ways recycled water can be used beyond sustainability goals or earning LEED certifications are on the horizon. Marquiss envisions mechanisms in the future that can add natural flavors to filtered drinking water in spas and other wellness-related sectors of a property.
Likewise, DiMare pointed to Culligan Quench’s efforts to consistently update its product lines and filtration technologies to ensure it will offer the most innovative solutions for its hospitality customers. While its products and services don’t cover laundry or dishwashing applications, the firm emphasizes the continued demand among hotel guests for great-tasting filtered drinking water as well as improved consistency in food preparation.
“One thing that we are really excited about is offering flavored sparkling water in more installation locations, like lobbies, on-the-go food/convenience shops in hotels and other on-site locations,” she said. “The biggest growth we are seeing with hotel clients for filtered drinking water is in their spa and wellness centers. We are seeing a growing demand for healthy, fruit-inspired hot, cold or sparkling drinking water and I think this will continue to be on-trend in 2026.”
In addition to providing guests pristine drinking water, Tartakovsky further detailed how Epic Cleantec systems can go beyond taking water from laundry and from bathroom sinks for recycling and repurposing. By treating the water with exceptional standards, it can be used for landscaping and hotel rooftop garden irrigation. In other properties, the treated water can be used for everything from toilet flushing and irrigation to cooling towers to laundry.
“There is a wide use for what you can do with that recycled water. On one project, we actually took the same recycled shower and laundry water, partnered with a local brewery and made premium craft beer,” Tartakovsky said. “This is something I envision will be popular with some of our future hospitality clients. While we will need the regulators to be on board, recognizing that recycled water is a new topic for a lot of folks, but for the Waldorf specifically, what they can look forward to is that we are actually building the most sophisticated operating system that actually uses—and this sounds almost cliche in this day and age to say this—but incorporates machine learning and AI to actually make the system incredibly smart.
When considering what system and company is right for your property, Boomerang’s Notte advised prospective clients to compare all the tangible inputs such as long-term savings in waste disposal, reduced shipping costs and lower cost per unit once the client achieves the target water reuse goal. He also cited unexpected financial loss experienced by properties, from bottled water recalls due to bacteria and soaring fuel surcharges and logistics costs that drive the prices of bottled water higher.
“Our system will have higher upfront costs when compared to what a property spends on bottled water dropped off at a loading dock,” Notte explained. “The value comes back in many ways to make the investment worth it. By eliminating single-use plastic bottles and providing high-quality, reusable alternatives, we help hotels offer a tangible amenity that resonates with today’s eco-aware guests. (They) are thrilled to know that they are drinking purified, local water that is bottled on-site and not carted halfway around the world.”
“I think that the main message is to make sure that your water footprint is taken into consideration,” Marquiss concluded. “When we turn on the tap, water appears and when we turn off the shower, it disappears down the drain, and it’s not necessarily seen as a resource. This is known as ‘waste water,’ and as a person with a marketing background, I think it’s a tragedy that we put ‘waste’ in the name, and I think it’s a term in dire need of a rebrand. But I think what we are finding is that we’re putting these systems into luxury properties throughout the country, and it’s not actually a liability, but it’s an asset, because not only does it reduce their ongoing costs, but people like it.”
Clear Savings
Regardless of why a hotel or resort implements a water filtration system, the resulting financial savings justifies the initial investment as well as upgrades when they are released:
- With the Epic Cleantec/OneWater system in place at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, it was estimated that approximately 1,200 gallons are recycled per day, based on 438,000 gallons of water recycled per year. As a result, the hotel's general manager has stated that, the hotel’s savings have been in the “tens of thousands of dollars.”
- Before implementing a Vivreau system, the Fairmont Copely Plaza, Boston, MA, set goals to reduce bottled water costs by providing an elegant alternative to traditional bottled water and reduce the amount of one-time use vessels that end up in landfills/oceans. After installing the main bottling system, the program’s cost per day dropped from $95.89 to $14.28.
- With a Vivreau system in place, management of the Forbes five-star rated Boston Habor Hotel reported an annual savings of $28,948.15, with a program saving percentage of 82.7 percent and 43,070 bottles saved from landfills. Its sustainable water program carries over to its Meritage Restaurant at a net zero cost, resulting in 100 percent retail profit.
This article was originally published in the November/December edition of Hotel Management magazine. Subscribe here.