It leaked
On this page10
Pressure change in transit
Amenity stock travels, often by air. A closure that seals at ground level and weeps at altitude produces a carton of ruined product and a soaked pallet.
And a guest takes it home
Which is the second pressure cycle, in a suitcase, with the property's name on it. An amenity that leaks into somebody's luggage is a brand problem rather than a packaging one.
The pump that stopped working
Dip tube, seals or spring attacked by the formulation, or a pump left unused for weeks losing prime. For an in-room bottle used across several guests this is the commonest complaint.
The refill nobody cleaned
Topping up a dispenser or a bottle rather than emptying and washing it. In a shared bathroom that is a hygiene issue and it is the shortcut every housekeeping operation reaches for.
Which argues for sealed cartridges
A sealed refill that drops into a dispenser removes the cleaning shortcut, provides tamper evidence and is easier to audit. It also costs more per millilitre.
Formulation attacks the closure first
Essential oils and high surfactant loads are hard on liners and seals. The bottle is usually the easy part and the closure is where the failure begins.
Test the way it will travel
Filled, sealed, boxed, through a pressure cycle, warm, on its side. Every failure on this page appears in that test and none appear on a bench.
And test the refill cycle too
If the model is refilling, run a bottle through ten fills and cleans before committing. Threads strip, pumps clog and liners deform, and ten cycles is where it shows.
The failure is almost never the bottle
It is the closure, the liner or the seal, attacked by the formulation or by a pressure cycle. Specifying the bottle first and the closure second is how most of these arrive.