By Adwa from Adwa on Canva
There was a time when water at a luxury hotel meant a choice between still and sparkling, delivered in whatever bottle the supplier had on contract. That era is over. At the highest end of hospitality, water has become a curated element of the guest experience, selected with the same intentionality as the linens, the artwork, and the wine list (Toevs, 2025).
It is a shift that has been building quietly across Europe’s most prestigious properties and is now making its way into the consciousness of discerning travelers worldwide. The question is no longer whether a hotel serves good water. It is which water, from where, and why.
The Hospitality Industry’s Quiet Revolution
Walk into any of the top-ranked hotels on Lake Como, the Amalfi Coast, or the French Riviera, and you will notice that the water program has changed. Properties that once defaulted to mass-market brands are now partnering with specific springs and estates, choosing waters based on mineral composition, origin, and how they complement the culinary program.
The logic mirrors what happened with wine decades ago. A great hotel would never serve an anonymous house wine without provenance. Today, the same standard is being applied to water. General managers and food and beverage directors are asking the same questions of their water that they ask of their Barolo: Where does it come from? What is the mineral profile? How does it pair with the cuisine? Does the packaging reflect the property’s commitment to quality?
Martin Riese, a certified water sommelier who has been featured by National Geographic, NPR, and Netflix, has spoken extensively about this evolution (Lott-Schwartz, 2019; Pfeiffer, 2023). He has described how water picks up a unique mineral signature as it filters through underground stone layers, a concept he likens to terroir in winemaking (Schott, 2024). That natural variation is what gives each source its character, and it is precisely what luxury properties are now leveraging to differentiate their guest experience.
Why Provenance Matters at This Level
For ultra-high-net-worth travelers, provenance is not a marketing buzzword. It is a baseline expectation. These are guests who know the estate their olive oil comes from, the region where their cashmere is woven, and the vineyard behind every bottle on their table. Water is simply the next category to receive that level of attention.
What properties have discovered is that the story behind the water matters as much as the water itself. A family-owned spring in the Italian Alps, bottling from the same source for three generations, carries a narrative weight that resonates with guests who value heritage, craftsmanship, and independence from corporate conglomeration.
This is part of what has drawn properties such as Passalacqua, Villa d’Este, and Grand Hotel Tremezzo to source from chiarella.com, an Italian mineral water brand sourced from a single Alpine spring near Lake Como. The water is naturally filtered through ancient dolomitic rock, producing a mineral-rich profile with the lowest sodium content in Europe and a neutral pH of 7.5. The brand has been family-owned since 1964, has never been acquired, and bottles exclusively in glass. For properties where every detail is curated, it is the kind of partner that aligns with the standard they set across every other touchpoint.
Glass, Sustainability, and the Guest Experience
The shift toward premium water programs has coincided with a broader move away from plastic in luxury hospitality. For five-star properties, plastic bottles at the table were always something of an aesthetic contradiction. But the push toward glass is not purely visual. Glass is inert, meaning it does not interact with the water or alter its taste over time, something that cannot always be said of plastic packaging.
Dr. Mark Hyman, a functional medicine physician and bestselling author, has raised concerns about chemicals in plastic packaging, including phthalates and BPA, that can leach into water. For hotels serving health-conscious, well-informed guests, eliminating plastic from the water program is both a wellness decision and a brand decision.
There is also a sustainability narrative at play. Glass is infinitely recyclable, and many of the heritage mineral water brands now appearing on hotel tables have operated with glass-only packaging for decades, long before sustainability became a hospitality talking point.
What This Means for the Informed Traveler
For guests who move between the world’s best properties, the water program is becoming a subtle but telling indicator of how seriously a hotel takes its craft. It signals the same attention to detail that separates a truly exceptional stay from a merely expensive one.
The practical takeaway is worth noting as well. Not all mineral waters are created equal. Sodium levels, mineral composition, and pH vary significantly between sources, and those differences affect both taste and how the water complements food and wine. A low-sodium, neutral-pH mineral water will pair cleanly with a delicate seafood course without competing on the palate. A higher-mineral, more assertive water may suit richer dishes but can overwhelm subtler flavors.
The best hotel water programs account for these nuances, and the best-traveled guests are beginning to notice.
A Standard That Extends Beyond the Hotel
What starts at the five-star level has a way of filtering into personal lifestyle. The same travelers who discover a particular mineral water at a Lake Como estate often seek it out for their own homes, their dinner parties, their yachts. It is the same pattern that drove the premium olive oil movement, the single-origin coffee trend, and the rise of estate wines in private cellars.
Water is simply catching up. And for those who have always believed that quality is found in the details, the only surprise is that it took this long.
References
- Hyman, M. (2016, July 25). Get these toxins out of your house. Mark Hyman, MD.
- Hyman, M. (2017, January 26). Are you drinking clean water? Mark Hyman, MD.
- Lott-Schwartz, H. (2019, May 4). Meet water sommelier Martin Riese. National Geographic.
- Pfeiffer, S. (2023, July 16). Meet the water sommelier advocating for clean drinking water. NPR.
- Riese, M. (2023, April 27). Water sommelier meaning – Martin Riese [Interview]. ICONIC LIFE.
- Rouse da Silva Costa, T., Fernandes, T. S. M., Almeida, E. S., Oliveira, J. T., Guedes, J. A. C., Zocolo, G. J., de Sousa, F. W., & do Nascimento, R. F. (2021). Potential risk of BPA and phthalates in commercial water bottles: A minireview. Journal of Water and Health, 19(3), 411-435.
- Schott, B. (2024, November 11). Water sommelier Martin Riese wants to help hydrate the world. AFAR.
- The World’s 50 Best Hotels. (2023, September 19). Passalacqua is named the best hotel in the world.
- Toevs, S. (2025, January 21). Top 3 food and beverage trends coming to hotels in 2025. Hotel Dive.
