W Hotel places a pint bottle of water on the night table by the bed everyday - careful, if you open it you will be charged $8.46! There is NO sign whatsoever warning about the price of this "designer" water. they should put the water in the mini-bar if it's not complimentary.

LOL..well, not laughing AT you but actually crying with you. When I got to my hotel in Stockholm there was a lovely tray with two small bottles of wine..like the two glass size...sitting on the desk. I drank one and there was a 50 crown charge on the hotel bill. And I was thinking , well isn't that nice, while I was drinking it. LOL I am such a sophisticate!!!! We live and learn don't we?

I guess maybe we should ask about the soap!!

Same thing here except it was a bowl of snacks on the coffee table in Vancouver Cananda. I thought, what a nice gesture. They too were on the bill.

That's absurd, I would complain to the management.

I complained and was credited the amount of the water.

I would complain loudly. Now what about the toilet paper..do any hotels charge extra if that is used :-?

How much is this toilet paper gonna cost? Is it expensive?

Anybody got 2 fives for a ten?

I'm glad you got your money back.

Toilet paper, hmmm, I consider that more of a necessity than water. But if the charge for TP is too much, then I hope there's a bidet.

LOL PM!!! Good thought!!!

Hotels should pay the guests for using what they offer as toilet paper and tissue. Yikes. I always bring my own box of kleenex.

I'm almost afraid to touch anything but the bed when I stay in a high-end hotel.

At least they credited you for the water when you complained!

On the opposite end, I stayed at the Hilton Universal City a few months ago and there was a lovely fruit basket with some snacks and 3 bottles of water in my room when I checked in. My friend had the same thing....as we walked through the lobby and mused on whether we should touch it, we asked out loud, "I wonder if it's free?"....and a staffer overheard us and assured us that yes, the fruit basket was complimentary.

In this day and age of hotels nickel-and-diming us, this was a wonderful surprise!!

I suppose I should of said something about being charged for what looked like complimentary snacks but I didn't, actually it was a little embarrasing that we assumed they were free. However, next time I will ask.

cd, I"d have made the same mistake and I've lived in/with the business for years. Water generally is charged for so I'm leery of that, but snacks, in my experience are locked up in mini-bars. If they are out, I assume they are free!

We were staying in a lovely two level suite complete with grand piano in Grand Cayman. There was a small bar/kitchen area that contained a microwave and a full sized refrigerator. The frig was stocked with soft drinks, beer, candy-bars, fruit etc. Because DH has the good fortune of being a GM in that chain, that isn't all that unusual to see--gratis. We were there a week with our two grown kids and we ate from our stash with abandon after coming home famished from a day of snorkeling each day. Every day it was replaced. It was more than a bit of a shock to find at the end of our stay, that we were charged for it all, just as if it had been mini-bar stuff! Absurd, and because of his job, there was no way on earth he would complain. So...do not feel alone or foolish!

Oh...after telling that bad story, I really should tell this VERY good one.

DH and his Rooms Exec were standing in the lobby one day this week, observing something and a guest came up to them saying, "I'm looking for Mr. XX and Mr. XX" (my GM husband and his rooms exec). "You've got them" they reply, expecting initially to get an earful about something, having been hunted down. No. The guest relayed how he'd looked in his mini bar, then looked in the vending machines on his corridor for Cokes, and grumbled to the maid as he passed that all he could find in the hotel was Pepsi (true). He went on to his meeting returning to his room about an hour later and there in his ice bucket were two Diet Cokes, on ice. The maid had taken it upon herself to run down to the drug store around the corner and buy him the Cokes!! That's a wow story in the ever too busy hotel business. He wanted to give his tip for the maid to DH, so he'd be certain it reached the right person. DH plans to honor this good deed too. **** employee!!

OO's back to OO!!!!

Free bottled water in hotels usually come with a little paper collar on it, telling you it's complimentary. If you don't see it, don't open it unless you're sure.

cd...yup, that old cat has been dragging things around again and look what it drug in now.

What is described here is nothing short of abhorrent and is really a form of theft.

(Known in the common parlance as "highway robbery")

People should refuse to pay such sneak fees. If enough people did, hotels would be forced to stop these shenanigans.

Setting: posh hotel, very expensive on the Amalfi Coast.

Set-up: Bottle of red wine on the table, with a white envelope addressed to us leaning up against it. Inside was a handwritten note from the manager welcoming us and saying he hoped we'd enjoy this sample of Italy's best wine. We did.

Punch-line: $55. for "wine in room" appeared on our bill at check out, when we had exactly 2 minutes to get into the cab and make our train.