Funny you should mention TP ! There was an article in 'The Scotsman' this week about the newish trendy hotel Tigerlily in Edinburgh bemoaning the fact that guests kept taking home the exclusive (and expensive) black loorolls they supply in their top suite, and saying they are now offering it for sale. Don't know exactly how the details of this work...

Well, here's one: When walking down the corridor on the way back to my room I've seen the used room service trays sitting on the floor. Sometimes there is a perfectly fresh rose still sitting in the vase. I pull the rose and put it in the vase in my room. Now how corny is that? And NO in advance, of course I don't pilfer uneaten shrimp off the trays. (have to cover everything you jokesters might mention!)

Hopingtotravel, I think that's a great idea. Why let it go to waste? Reduce, re-use, recycle!
:)>-

Thanks for all the ideas, thoughts and stories. No more stocking stuffers - If I bring them home, and don't use them, I'll donate them to the shelters.

I don't think the hotel expects you to use all of every bottle plus the shoeshine kit and the sewing kit. And I think they replace only those bottles that have been opened. So, no, you're not paying for them all, and they're not yours to do with what you will.

(I'm imagining a suitcase full of little bottles, etc. rattling around. Do you allow extra space for these items? Just think of the extra carbon footprint. And the environmental impact of all those little plastic bottles.)

Naff

When the hotel switches from one guest to another, I've read they cannot keep any of the bottles from the previous guest's stay, open or not.

The reason is that you never know what disgusting things a previous guest might have done with a bottle that appears to be full. So you aren't doing anyone any favors by not taking unused bottles with you.

This doesn't mean you should try to get fresh bottles every day of a multi-day stay - that's up to your discretion and taste.

I take what I like. By that I mean, if I like the lotion, I'll take it, and I'll take the new one every day. On the other hand, I never use the hotel's shampoo/conditioner, shoe shine cloth, shower cap, and will only take the sewing kit if I've used it. It's never occured to me to pick something up off the cart without checking with the maid first. I might ask for an extra bottle of the lotion I like or I might tell her if my room's run out of something specific and she hasn't replaced it but, no, the cart is theirs. The room is mine.

No, I don't take the toilet paper, although I have to wonder where those partial rolls go -- every time I check into a hotel room, there's a full roll there.

This problem never crossed my mind.

But I have to say I am impressed by you who take it back home and gives it to someone who actually needs it. (I see people collecting for hospitals etc.)

I guess some hotels had disposed of them, rather then it came to use.

Applause! I think I might do that next time.

I will confess I came close to taking toilet paper from the Hotel Belle Epoque in Bern. It has *pink* toliet paper. *Pink*

One of my dreams as a little kid was to have pink toilet paper- I thought it was the most sophisticated and luxurious thing in the world- but my mom always refused to buy it because of the "unnecessary chemicals".

So for one night I lived the dream- and while packing up the next morning, there I was in a barbie pink fanstasy psychosis, trying (unsucessfully) to cram the extra rolls into my overpacked luggage.

Confession number two: there was also a really huge bowl of individually wrapped, multi-coloured hard candies in the same hotel room. I filled 2 ziplock bags to the brim.

"When the hotel switches from one guest to another, I've read they cannot keep any of the bottles from the previous guest's stay, open or not." In which country ?

Yes, Caroline, I also wondered about that last comment...

For the record, I always take home the good stuff: Molton Brown, etc. I now have entire closet shelves filled with those things (!) but they do come in handy for packing. An entirely different issue is the soaps and shampoos that are not of great quallity but are from legendary hotels..do people take those home as well? And do what with them?

Don't feel bad about using them as stocking stuffers - my mum does that too and no-one minds! Perhaps it depends on the family attitude towards the stockings; in our family they are full of very low-value fun bits and pieces, no serious presents at all.

Does it make a difference which country? In the articles I read about this topic, the quoted persons worked for international hotel chains and were stating general policy, so far as I know.

That would be that hotel chain's policy, then. It may also be the law of the country in which that hotel chain has its HQ, but not necessarily.

I have certainly stayed in individuallly-owned posh hotels which provided full size bottles of nice bath salts, etc, which were obviously meant to be left for use by future guests.

> It has *pink* toliet paper. *Pink*

Apres-Londee, I see nothing special about that. Was it unusual pink at the hotel ??? I buy toilet paper pink, blue, yellow, etc at the supermarkets (in Switzerland but I don't think that's any different from other countires').

Kappa:

I'm with you. I don't care about the colour as long as it's "Aktion."

It seems to me that we used to have coloured toilet paper here and kleenex too but I haven't seen that for a million years. I think you can only buy white here now.

Which country are you in, hdm ?

Canada. The 'The White Toilet Paper Capitol of the Free World'. :-D