Bobble is a stylish, reusable bottle that filters water as you drink, using an ingenious replaceable carbon filter. When water passes through the filter, the carbon removes chlorine and organic contaminants. bobble is intended for municipal tap water making water better, with every sip.

bobble is a beautiful, sleek alternative to single-serve plastic water bottles, which harm the earth (and your wallet). Every filter equates to 300 single-serve bottles. After a year, you’ve removed thousands of bottles from the environment, simply by filtering the water from your tap. bobble is free of BPA, Phthalates and PVC. And it is guilt-free as well.

Trend no. 5 : sustainability goes mainstream
For those who thought two years ago that sustainability would
flame out as a trend (as has occurred in the past), it is now
clear that customers’ demand for sustainable hotel operations
has taken root and expanded. The hotel industry has taken
notice, as demonstrated by a push for consistent reporting
standards and industry best practices coming from our industry
roundtables in both Asia and North America. In that regard,
meeting planners and corporate planners are now requesting
that hotels provide sustainability-related information (such as
energy use or recycling policies). Third-party certification of
green claims has become an important part of sustainability
reporting, as demonstrated for instance by Travelocity’s Green
Hotel Directory, which does not recognize self-certified hotels. 

Trend no. 4 : customers’ search for value through
social couponing and daily deals
Value comes in all forms, but in the current economic
environment, it means special offers and discounts, which are
a form of customer engagement. The rise of the daily deal sites,
notably Groupon, melded social media with customers’ desire
to get a « deal ». This trend will continue regardless of whether
Groupon survives, because dozens of other websites are also
offering social coupons. For hoteliers, this means developing
packages that will provide value for all stakeholders, including
both customers who seek a deal and those who are « regular »
customers, as well as the hotel itself. Strategies include creating
packages that are not directly comparable to existing services
and controlling cost structures so that the social coupon is not
a money-losing proposition. Although social coupons do involve
some cannibalization of existing customers, recent research has
demonstrated that they bring in new customers and encourage

Social media, which have grown exponentially in the past
two years, will continue to be a force, but the big electronic
development for hotel distribution and operations is mobile
devices, particularly those with radio frequency identification
(RFID) chips. Because of the remarkable plunge in the cost of
RFID, we anticipate that this will break out as its own trend soon
enough, and the combination of RFID and mobile apps will allow
guests to use their smart phones to book a room, check in,
open their guestroom door, and settle their folio – all without 

direct contact with your staff. Even without RFID, guests’ use
of mobile devices will create opportunities for innovation by
hoteliers, including new services and operating efficiencies.
Most critically, the dominance of electronic distribution as
summarized in trends 1 and 2 will solidify the major trend of
access to, and transparency of, information.