One of my friends used to own a bed and breakfast on Cape Cod and had the bathroom amenities put in special bottles with the name printed for advertising reasons. If these items were left in the room, they wouldn't serve their purpose, would they?

I take only the items I use and leave the other things like shoe shine and sewing kits. And Christina, I have actually HIDDEN the soap so housekeeping doesn't throw it away! When I am the only one staying in a room, why toss the soap? Give me a facecloth instead!

Don't think I've ever stayed anywhere where the bathroom bits were remotely worth nicking!

Now, if I ran a hotel, it'd be Jo Malone and Tom Ford 'Black Orchid' all the way!

I grab a whole bunch of them from the maid's cart when nobody's looking.

I grab lotion from the maid's cart. the bottles are "purse size" and get to travel with.

I was just on a business trip for 3 weeks. Anyone need some soap? :)

Funny you mention nicking them from the maid's cart. We were in Charleston last year, and the hotel had Hermes soaps in little green presentation boxes. I told housekeeping that my daughters would die over them, so they gave me two extras. (Market Pavilion Hotel, thank you).

It was the favorite of the stocking stuffers!

My husband, who is very "thrifty", just love to collect these amenities and uses them regularly at home. I have always believed that the hotels mean for us to have them and build the cost into the room rate. Nothing is truly "free" these days.

Your mistake wasn't in taking them, it was in giving them as gifts
:-)

Feel free to take as many amenities for as many days as you are staying at the hotel! No need to feel cheap or whatever about it....hell, you're paying for them as part of your room charge.

In Japan, they have those large containers of Shiseido soap and other Shiseido products in the bathroom. I'm not taking them, I'm just using them :D. And I always get a free refill.

When my daughter was 11 and we stayed at the Atlantis, she was apparently pocketing the entire basket of shampoos and such daily. She came home with a half a suitcase full. I asked her what she must have left behind to fill the suitcase and she said just the dirty undewear and stuff. :)
I still have some of that old stuff laying around the bathroom 4 years later. I have to do some housekeeping :)

I either use them or leave them, but I don't take them home anymore b/c they become clutter.
It doesn't seem like stealing to take them.

I've been in a few hotels recently where they have a big bottle of shampoo and shower gel glued to the wall of the shower. I thought the hotel was very generous until I broke the tile trying to take the bottle home. Give me the little bottles anytime!

Spass muss sein!
(Only joking, folks)

I cannot imagine that anyone actually thinks that a consumable amenity such as a small bottle of shampoo which a hotel has provided to a guest <b>and</b> that guest <b>paid for</b> when they paid for the room is something that has to be left behind if not used.

Things such as towels, carpets, beds, pillows, are not consumable in the same fashion.

If the hotel didn't want you to have it they wouldn't have put the shampoo there in the first place.

The very small bottles it's fine to take. Occasionally I've stayed at somewhere individual and expensive where they have provided full size bottles of very nice bath salts, etc, and you are obviously not meant to take those.

I would however not think much of anyone who gave me freebies from a hotel as Christmas presents - how cheap.

schuler.. but at least you will have enough tiles to renovate your bathroom after a couple of stays :-))

and Caroline:
It's good to see that people with common sense are not an extinct species yet.

I would not know of anybody I would give shampoo or soap from a hotel, but to people who actually collect those miniature bottles.

I gather up all the free samples of various European skin care lines that I get when I buy things in Europe and add to that small bottles of hair care products that aren't (easily) available in the U.S. (Juvena, Babor, etc.) and when I get together with women friends who don't/can't travel to Europe, I bring them along. Everybody loves trying them out.

The rest I donate to a local abused women's shelter that we support. Some women show up there with nothing but the clothes on their back. NH hotels are particularly good--their toiletries include good quality shampoo, conditioner, soap, body lotion, plus hairbrush, comb, sponges, feminine products, q-tips, etc., all individually and attractively wrapped.

These &quot;amenities &quot; are priced into the cost of your daily room charge. Any you use or take each day are something you have already paid for.

Do not feel guilty.

But what about the toilet paper. Can I take the TP and use it at home, or do I have to feel guilty?

Only what you have used you can take home :-))