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the Future of HospitalityWhat is the biggest misconceptions that hotels have about bio based bottles?

Bart WillemsWell, one thing is that we that that is not very well known yet, plant based materials. Mhmm. Most PET bottles are still made from oil based materials. Mhmm. So it it takes some explanation. But when we explain what it's about, the fact that it's made from the resin of sugarcane instead of oil Mhmm. Sugarcane absorbs more c o two from the air while it grows than is being emitted during production of our bottle Right. Which makes our bottle carbon neutral. This makes our bottle so much more sustainable than any other alternative. So

the Future of Hospitalitywith with this bottle, we're gonna learn more about it, the the why and the how and the what. You're targeting the hotel industry. Have you thought about events and where would be the win for events?

Bart WillemsAlso waste reduction. What we see with events is that they cope with a lot of waste after one day or several days of people having over mass mass amounts of people consuming single use products. And what we experience with events as well, just like with hotels actually, is that there are a huge waste reduction when they sell our bottles because people bring the bottle back home and keep reusing it. Right. So that's an instant

the Future of Hospitalityquick win. Okay. How do the first question that pops up, how do guests in hotels back to hotels, how do they what is their feedback on these these bottles?

Bart WillemsThe funny thing is we started with hotels in 2122, and without a doubt, people who receive this bottle in room are always positive about it. We have received so many messages or posts of people showing the bottle, that they were so happy with its gift given from this hotel, and that they really want to keep reusing the bottle, because they love the design, the whole concept. It's it's a it's a whole concept they have never seen before and that they're inspired by, because you hardly ever see a reusable bottle that's filled with water, made from sustainable materials, that looks like our bottle. So people instantly

the Future of Hospitalityfall in love with the bottle. And the subject? Take it home? I would take it home. Because if I know, knowing that it's bio based, it's not biodegradable, that's something different. Yep. Bio based and you can refill it. So I'm doing actually something good. It's I'm I'm I'm lowering my my footprint my carbon Absolutely.

Bart WillemsYeah. That's that's that's that's true. And what what we see slowly is that the demand from from hotels is really has really gained the last few years because they're all looking for a sustainable solution, but the solutions that that they have nowadays are often not really sustainable. For example, they use glass refillable glass bottles for in the room. Mhmm. But then they have to wash these bottles, fill them. It takes a lot of energy, a lot of time from staff, so it's not ideal. And with our bottle, have a quick solution,

the Future of Hospitalityan easy solution, and people bring the bottle home after checkout. So you don't have to waste it in a hotel. Okay. That's a good win. Tell me about the the inspiration. What were you doing before you started Bottle Up? You co founded Bottle Up with your partner. Tell me about that story, please. Yeah. So we started with the three of us in 2019.

Bart WillemsAnd it came from the idea that on one hand, we saw a lot of criticism on single use bottled water. Posts on Instagram where you saw bottles floating in the sea or in the canals. Here in the canals in Amsterdam, I see them all Absolutely. Lot of criticism and people rejecting single use. And on the other hand, we still saw the same single use water bottles in the water cooler for decades. No innovation, no new packaging, no reusability. Of course empty reusable bottles for €20 plus, but not a reusable alternative within the water cooler just for grabs. So that made us think, how can we change this category from within?

Bart WillemsChange behavior from within.

the Future of HospitalitySo that's when we started thinking. Can I go back to what you were doing before you got that inspiration Of course? And then move forwards? Of course. Because that is very interesting. You were working in another completely different industry, right? Yeah. Me and my

Bart Willemsco founder were working in media for a long time, and we always had brainstorms about what could we do that would make impact Mhmm. Instead of selling media the rest of our lives. And that was we were sure that was something we didn't want to do. So that's after brainstorms, we came to the up to this idea. My cofounder had been selling empty reusable bottles, but then we had the idea, let's try to find a mix of selling water in a sustainable bottle, which hadn't been done before. And then we found a producer in The UK. We wanted to start selling in The UK because the the market is this is one of the biggest bottled water markets in Europe.

Bart WillemsSo we thought, let's start there. So

the Future of Hospitalityyou mentioned the The UK, the hotel in UK. That was your first hotel. The first hotel. I wanna hear that story. How that goes? How did that go? That's a funny story. So

Bart Willemsin 2019, we started with the concert. It took us a year to find a producer who wants to adjust all the machines because it it's very hard to a to produce a reusable bottle and fill it at scale. So it took us more than a year. And then at the end of twenty nineteen, we were ready to start selling. And then we had a big deal with Amsterdam Airport. Mhmm. And we were about to send our first truck in March 2020. So this truck was going here.

the Future of HospitalityOur first deal A truck full of bottles, I imagine. Yeah.

Bart WillemsWe were very excited, of course. Our first client, and then COVID started in the same week. This was October no. March 20 Yeah. So we the the order was cancelled. We had a a truckload of bottles, financed, paid for. So we decided what can we do with the bottles. Mhmm. They have a best before date. We don't wanna throw them away, obviously. So we started sampling them at hotels. And we saw the first reaction from these hotels. They love the concept. And that's when we started with connecting to hotels.

the Future of HospitalityHow many hotels in The UK do you serve through right now? We work through wholesalers who are selling to hotels, so the exact number we don't know, but hundreds of them. Cool. Yeah. Okay. I like that. So what is the what is the plan? So you started Bottle Up in 2019. Yeah. COVID happened. Hotels were closed in the first two years off and on Yeah. Especially here in Europe. So that was a big challenge, I imagine. Absolutely. It was a big Did you close the business the media business?

Bart WillemsBecause I'm interested in that part as well. Yeah. The media business before, you mean. Yeah. Yeah. So, no. We started immediately with bottle of full Full time. Full time. Alright. Because we we had this belief that this is something that could really work. So we put all our time and effort and energy in this project. We still do, of course, but and we immediately saw attraction. Large retailers, like I just mentioned, hotels, and it's now spreading. The word is spreading. And the funny thing is when people like a product and buyers like a product, it speaks for itself and it starts rolling and and people start talking about it. And that's that's the phase where we're in now, that we're expanding to different countries, different hotel chains. How do you do that?

Bart WillemsIt's it takes a lot of time because the hotel community is quite a close community. It's all about your contacts. Mhmm. Who you know. Every different hotel makes their own decisions, so it takes time. And we are so so we're part of hotel communities.

the Future of HospitalityWe go to exhibitions where hotels meet. You try to to to to to share the message as good as you can. So what would you tell a hotelier that is watching this, listening to us, what would you tell them? Why would they get in touch with you Yeah. With Bottle Up to get more information about how this works? Well,

Bart Willemsit just a few things. It's one of the most easy ways to make a clear statement about sustainability with hardly any fraction Mhmm. In terms of pricing. Just a little bit more expensive than single use, but it reduces waste significantly. You get a product that people love, and people bring with them after checkout, as a memorable about their stay in the hotel.

the Future of HospitalitySo, it all benefits just for a small extra. What is holding hotels back? What could be what would you tell a hotel, hey, but you see more dangers or more risks, and there are no risks. How would you say that? Well, for hotels,

Bart Willemseverything is about the guest experience. Mhmm. So they really want to be sure that it's an add on, that they don't want to have any hesitation. And now that we have a proven track record, we see that it's easier for other hotels to step in, because they have seen other hotels and they heard stories from other hotels that it works. So, that's what we always show to them. We show them how it works for another hotel, and that's the best proof they can get. So, it's getting easier and easier, but definitely in the beginning, it was quite some explaining and hesitation for hotels to change to something different, what was new. Yeah. And they had this single use bottle of water, which was cheap, and there was no pain, you know, for why should they change? Mhmm. And nowadays, we see that it's different.

Bart WillemsSee that the audience that is looking for sustainable hotels Mhmm. Is growing and growing and growing, And they want to see real efforts from hotels that they really want to become sustainable. Yeah, well, this is one of the easiest way to

the Future of Hospitalityto to become more sustainable. And guests are really happy with it. I what I know is that guests even post it on their Instagrams,

Bart Willemsetcetera. Yep.

the Future of HospitalitySo it's, like you said yourself, a memorable

Bart Willemsguest experience. Yep. So that is a good thing, because that something that hotels are looking for. So that's a really good point. Absolutely. For PR reasons as well. So when you get the benefit of people posting the amenity that they were given by the hotel,

the Future of Hospitalityit all works positive. Yeah. I would be. I would be. If I would check-in a hotel and I would see this bottle on my nightstand, I would probably make a picture of it and post it indeed, because I wanna see stuff like this. Yeah. This everywhere. Yeah. So imagine I'm a hotel, and I want to start trying these bottles, make order. How does that work?

Bart WillemsThat's that's not very difficult, because we want to make it as easy as possible for hotels to order bottle up through their wholesalers, the wholesaler that they use for their single use bottled water, they can give a ring and start ordering our bottles. So we want to and we also experience that hotels don't want the hassle.

the Future of HospitalityKnow? No. But it needs to be easy. If it's not easy If it's not easy, it's not going to work. Nuisance and they don't want that. Yeah. I get that. I don't want that either. So they want to have the sustainability credentials, but it shouldn't cost too much,

Bart Willemsand it should be made very easy. Mhmm.

the Future of HospitalityThose are the the the restrictions. So there is really no change in the whole operations in the hotel. The only difference is that the one who changes, cleans the rooms, instead of a plastic bottle, they put a bio based bottle on it. And it saves a lot of work

Bart Willemsof collecting the disposed bottles, the single use bottles. Right. And collecting them and bringing to recycling plants. That's something you don't have to do anymore, which saves you a lot of money, time, and waste. Yep. Indeed.

the Future of HospitalityHours, efforts. Yep. Exactly. So it's twenty thirty. A guest asks for asks for water.

Bart WillemsWhat happens next? Single use bottled water will still be there. But our mission is make reusable the new normal. I like that. What we see is that the audience that doesn't want to buy single use water anymore is growing and growing and growing. And we are the sustainable alternative that offers something for this audience. So we are on our way to to to, yeah, be become a serious player in hospitality and retail, and be a serious alternative in the water cooler to single use. Wonderful.

the Future of HospitalityAnd I can only imagine that especially the the last generation, generation z and alpha Absolutely. They are I've I've spoke to a lot of students Yeah. 19, 20, 21 years old. People who are entering the hospitality industry industry from hotel school, and they're really, really connected and involved in their own future, in designing their own future and in in the world itself. And it also made so that is good. So I think you got that on your side. That is good. But it's also when when you were telling your story, I was like fifty years ago. We didn't even have plastic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everything was reusable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. So we're going back to the old days. Yeah. And we should because we got too dependent on plastic. It's oil. It's not good for for the environment.

Bart WillemsThis is not the end state, you know. The end state is truly circular at scale. But this is a first step to change habits, to make it easy for hotels to change habits. Okay.

the Future of HospitalityI have a last question for you for I mean, it's the the start of 2026. How do you see bottle up at the end of this year? What

Bart Willemswe see is that a lot of hotels are looking for a sustainable solution, but they often they're not sure yet what to do. Okay. There's a big win there. Yeah, there's a big win there. So, what we offer as well is we partner with companies that make water dispensers specifically for hotels, because we see the demand for water dispensers is growing, and they often see bottled up in combination with the water dispenser in the hallway. Go hand in hand. So Yeah. They give away the bottle or people buy the bottle, and then they can refill it everywhere in the hotel. So slowly, these hotels are making steps and becoming more sustainable and finding a way of refilling, reusing water in their hotels.

Bart WillemsSo and we think what we see is that it's getting more they're getting more used to these new ways of consuming, and this is going pretty fast. So we will be seeing bottle up quite more often in hotels in 2026. That's good.

the Future of HospitalityOne last thing, where can people find bottle up? You can find bottle up here, at the Prince Island. Ah, that's where we are. That's where we are. One

Bart Willemsof the most beautiful Yeah. Spots in Amsterdam. Near the canals. No plastic bottles here, by the way, today. No, this lovely place here in Amsterdam, next to the candles, a very inspiring place. Where is your website? Www.bottleup.com.

the Future of HospitalityOh, that's an easy one. Alright. Okay. Well, thank you so much for this Thank you, Ariel. For highlighting Bottle up. You got a fan and Thank you. I'm gonna keep an eye on you 2026 because I wanna see these bottles all over Amsterdam. Yeah. For the viewers, please follow our page on LinkedIn, future of hospitality. And thank you for watching, and all also follow our socials, please. Thank you, Bart. Thank you, Ariane. It was a pleasure.