Hotel bathroom amenities
 

I've always had fun taking home all the shampoos, soaps, etc that are sitting in the bathroom when we check into our room. I use them as stocking stuffers in the immediate family and I thought everyone who received them got a kick out of it. Recently we were having a family discussion and one of the elderly members of the family said that I was "stealing" and these amenities were to use; not to take with me. She also said that taking these increase the price of the room for others. I was dumbfounded. When I asked others, the opinion was evenly split. What does everyone on this forum think about these items? I'm talking about the little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash, etc. not towels or anything else in the hotel.

Hi, I believe the shampoo etc. are for you to use however you like. My sister who travels extensively for work saves them and donates them a few times a year to a local woman's shelter.

Hi R,

Those little bottles are good advertising for the hotel and/or the manufacturer.

((I))

Interesting logic...apparently if you use the things up in your room then it is OK but if you take them to use them later it is stealing.

Get some new relatives or better yet..take all those things and stuff them into the stockings of the dissenters this coming hoilday.

Does your relative think that if you were to use them but not take them they would be left for the next person to use the rest of it rather than thrown away?

Maybe she or he thought you were talking about towels or something.

It depends on where I am. I think most hotel chains in the U.S. assume that the lotion/shampoo bottles have been opened and the maids are instructed to put out new ones.

In Europe I think it's the reverse. I will admit to a twinge of guilt when I've taken home a couple of high end brand name items. Especially Anick Goutal. That's my favorite so I usually use up what they have anyway.

Now with the ban on liquids on flights, I usually leave everything I don't use. I still take some of the little soaps if they're special-- the Carvin soap at the Lapa Palace were great. I'd love to know where I could buy more!

Before, I would often take them with me and donate them as another poster indicated.

I don't think it's stealing as they were put there by the hotel for my consumption.

If it's there in the bathroom when I check in I consider it mine. I'm a former prosecutor and my husband says if I don't think it's wrong, no one will.

I take them, too. I have mailed them to our troops away at war. I agree that they are sample advertising for the hotel and the shampoo maker. They want their brand seen all over the place.
:)>-

I think they're there for your use if you need them. Leave them if you don't. To hoard every free thing or eat every bite on your plate is the act of a peasant. And it's certainly a cheap present to give.

You are stealing, unless there is a notice inviting you to take them.

It's the same with making up your lunch from the breakfast buffet.

Do 'Merkins have NO morals ?

I think your relatives are nuts. YOu've paid for those in your room rate, regardless of whether you use them that night or not. Why would it be stealing to take something you've paid for? This isn't the same thing (I suppose here we go again, but I wonder if this post was copied from prior ones) as taking more than you can eat for later use in a buffet restaurant, for example, where the price covers that meal, not days of use.

Aside from advertising for the hotel, which is true, I have tried time and time again to get hotel maids to stop throwing away items that are barely used (like bars of soap) and I have complained numerous times to hotel management about that issue, as well as laundering towels etc when they have barely been used. Do you think they care about this? No, they don't, even when I complained in a hotel I was staying in a week, the maid continued to remove bars of soap daily and replace them with new ones. These were not those teeny ones either, but medium sized ones. When I complained several times to the mgt about this for ecological reasons, and I asked them what they do with them, they said they throw them away.

I would never give these to relatives as gifts, however, I do think that's rather tacky (sorry, I do).

I will add an amendment that if you are in a hotel many nights, I don't think it's right to take them every night and put them away if you aren't using them. I don't do that, but I will take one set at the end of my stay when I haven't used any, as I paid for it. The only reason I take them is for the small size which can be good for later travels, and sometimes to try new products (which is good advertising). I don't take things I never use, either, just to get free samples of something.

Christina, I think it's great you've taken your time to voice those complaints. I've noticed many hotels now have the tent cards in the bathrooms asking you to hang up your towel if you don't need a fresh one. So, I've done that in several hotels-- but the maids take them and replace them anyway! Same with changing the sheets. At least people are starting to pay attention to ecological concerns, but it will take awhile apparently.
:)>-

"Do 'Merkins have NO morals ?"

I don't recall anyone here mentioning that they are a pubic wig for women.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/merkin

mer·kin –noun false hair for the female pudenda.


mer·kin n. A pubic wig for women.
merkin

"female pudenda," 1535, apparently a variant of malkin (q.v.) in its sense of "mop." Meaning "artificial vagina or 'counterfeit hair for a woman's privy parts' " is attested from 1617. According to "The Oxford Companion to the Body," the custom of wearing merkins dates from c.1450, was associated with prostitutes, and was to disguise either pubic hair shaved off to exterminate body lice or evidence of venereal disease.

I work in a Neonatal ICU. We make care packages for parents having to spend the night due to their child's critical condition. I bring home everything from all travels for these care packages.

I must have stayed in 150+ hotels so far. But I must also admit that this question has never crossed my mind.

Small bottles of shampoo, conditioners, small soaps, ball pens, notepads = okay to take home

Bathrobes, slippers, towels = not okay to take home (actually, many hotels now have notes in the bathrooms quoting the price for those items if you want to buy them)

For the sake of completeness: linens, lamps, beds, TV sets, nightstands, shower heads = definetely not okay

Chambermaid = must also not be taken home to clean up there

We just gave a local homeless shelter three bags of soap/lotion and shampoo.

I saw this question posed in a local newspaper a few years ago, and a hotel manager replied that it was perfectly okay to take the small amenities, as well as the pens. I do think it would be a bit tacky to pocket the amenities every day on a multi-day stay.

Nice summary on this topic:

http://www.sleeping-around.com/pract...es_theft.shtml

Maybe it also helps a bit to understand how marketing works.

Though I hate to stand corrected on the slippers ;-)