16 replies to this topic

[wagtail]

...that they have in hotels..?  do you take them with you when you leave a hotel, or leave them unused?

see, I don't know a single person who travels without taking their own shampoo and conditioner...[okay, I have a couple of bald friends who don't...but you know what I mean]....noone uses that stuff do they?

I reckon they should abandon the idea of free toiletries  in favour of free beer.  

...or chocolate.

what do you think?

[scrapkook]

I take them if they're something I'd never buy in real life--one hotel I stayed at had L'Occitane products in the bathroom so of COURSE I had to pinch those.  Also, the little bottles are good for traveling so nine times out of ten, they stay in my toiletry bag for the next trip.

[slinky1]

I used to take them,  but after the changes in how much liquid you could take in carry on bags I did not have room for them.
Emily

[wendellg]

It depends... on long trips I travel with my own shampoo and conditioner and other toiletries but if I'm on a short trip or especially if I'm traveling without checked luggage and carry on is limited to "one bag plus a personal item" I use what's at the hotel and if I liked it, I will take the extras with me for use on a future trip. The itty bitty size is perfect to get past the 3oz rule at airport security.

That said, free beer or chocolate would be good too.

[unclejel]

Shoot! I thought they were booze. Aloe beera & jojobeer.

[kohoutekdriver8]

YES!  I ALWAYS take the soap, shampoo, lotion, mouthwash, etc.  Most people don't know this, but if you don't take the free toiletries, they have to throw them away.  It's a health department thing.

I donate them to the food pantry.

[scrapkook]

Now that you guys mentioned chocolate, there was a hotel chain in the states that gave you chocolate chip cookies on the pillows instead of mints...I wonder if they're still around...

[unclejel]

kohoutekdriver8 said:

YES!  I ALWAYS take the soap, shampoo, lotion, mouthwash, etc.  Most people don't know this, but if you don't take the free toiletries, they have to throw them away.  It's a health department thing.

I donate them to the food pantry.

I hope there's a note on them reading: "DO NOT EAT"

[wendellg]

scrapkook said:

Now that you guys mentioned chocolate, there was a hotel chain in the states that gave you chocolate chip cookies on the pillows instead of mints...I wonder if they're still around...

When you check in at the Doubletree you still get warm chocolate chip cookies. I recently stayed at a Homewood Suites and there was a basket of free snacks in the room. I wish more places had free wireless internet. It seems that the more posh the hotel the more they charge for wifi and the cheaper places like Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express have free wifi and often better snacks and a better free breakfast buffet.

[trix]

I take them, if I am not pressed for room in my luggage.  On longer trips I frequently have only brought a small bottle so I either need to use what is in the hotel or find a drugstore.

Once I ended up on one of the 'club levels' of a hotel, and there was a lounge with free snacks and an honor bar.  It was funny because it was when I was a grad student, and one of my professors ended up on one of the 'standard' floors--no free snack for him!

I really like when there is a minibar in your room.  I know they are a rip off, but I like getting back to the room after a long day and breaking out a snack and a cold drink.

[Leilani]

If they are in a bottle I'll take them - as they are then handy to take away if going away fior a night or weekend some other time.

When we were travelling for a month I only took enough shampoo/conditioner of my own to last about 2 weeks and relied on the hotels to make up the shortfall - though often the hotel stuff is "conditioning shampoo" which is usually crapolla - but occassionally you can score the good stuff.  I never take the soap, as it can get wet and end up as a mess in the bottom of your toilet bag!

Free wi-fi is the best thing - I hated places that charged $10 for it - if they had just added it to the room rate I wouldn't have batted an eye-lid and would have been impressed with free wi-fi!  The best "free" stuff we've ever scored was strawberries and chocolate dip - of course it was the most expensive place we stayed!

[Mary]

I'm a cheapskate and I always take the soap & shampoo stuff from hotel rooms, unless space in my luggage is really hard to find.  I rarely use it, though--I usually give it to my parents, or my grandma, or I'll save up a little stockpile of them and donate them to the women's shelter in town.

[musicbrain_5]

I stayed at a hotel in Montreal last year where they would place one of those giant Toblerone pyramids on the bed.  I think I ended up with three or four of them when I left, because they would replace it if you took the chocolate.  As for the shampoo and whatnot, I take it if it smells good.  It's free after all!

[kohoutekdriver8]

unclejel said:

I hope there's a note on them reading: "DO NOT EAT"

ROTFLMAO! :p

Most people also don't know that food pantries take non-food items like personal hygiene and cleaning products.  One time, I was discussing this with my then-pastor, a man in his 50s, and said they always have a shortage of soap, shampoo, feminine hygiene products......and at that point, he cringed and said, "No!  No!  No!" and I replied, "If you aren't comfortable buying those, you can always bring a can of soup."

[In the Corner]

wendellg said:

It depends... on long trips I travel with my own shampoo and conditioner and other toiletries but if I'm on a short trip or especially if I'm traveling without checked luggage and carry on is limited to "one bag plus a personal item" I use what's at the hotel and if I liked it, I will take the extras with me for use on a future trip. The itty bitty size is perfect to get past the 3oz rule at airport security.

That said, free beer or chocolate would be good too.

What she said.

[Spacey-cadet]

I am in the process of working my way through a whole bag of them...mixed in with freebies from reps...time was I would only use organic, non SLS, non parabens...but these things have been hanging around for years so need using up

[Hezalin]

I have used them in the hotel if I like the scent. being a hairdresser I love to try all that stuff.  I rarely use the littrle bars of soap  though and wish they'd substitue shower gel instead of that. One htoel I was at had a whole little kit with a mini sewing kit, toothbrush, mouthwash, nail file,all sorts of stuff. i still have that and loved it.  I don't usually take the stuff home becasue i do carry my own as well and always have tons of stuff form the samples I get.