Bored with that Solitary Mint on Your Pillow? JW Marriott Offers a New Take on Turndown

It’s a tiny thing, but a treat at turndown is an easy way for a hotel to win points with its guests and differentiate itself from the competition — and airbnb. I know I’m grateful when something thoughtful and unexpected turns up at turndown. (I still use the tiny tub of mandarin and lemon lip balm left on the bedside table at the Crosby Street Hotel.)

JW Marriott has just upped the ante with a rotating medley of nightly turndown tidbits. Stay four nights in a row, and you’ll never find the same trifle on your bedside table twice.

What can you expect from the chain’s new Nightly Refresh program?

A night-time health bar packed with organic oats to help release seratonin for relaxation and blueberries for a jolt of skin-replenishing antioxidants.

A tiny flask of essential oils – pink grapefruit, juniper berry and rosemary – to refresh and restore you in the shower or bathtub after a long flight – or a rough day (or night).

A bottled nightcap from Beringer, Chateau St. Jean, Stag’s Leap and other wineries.

Chocolates – yes, chocolates: bespoke morsels from Astor Chocolates instead of the classic mint.

Look for them, sequentially, of course, on bedside tables at participating JW Marriotts. But it’s still early days.  At this writing, New York’s JW Marriott Essex House was still offering “regular turndown service,” according to the guest relations person I spoke with on the phone.