Do you leave things in hotel room after departure for the maids to take if they want them?

First foreign holiday was very cheap and cheerful, a lovely older couple knocked as they were leaving and asked if I wanted their left over toiletries.. I was a student and was delighted with the Clarins and clinique products, small amount left but was a real treat. On more recent holidays with kids there has always been a fb page for the hotel where people leave a note of what's being left...great idea. There is so much waste, anything where the product inside is untouched is fine by me..never actually thought of leaving childrens clothes etc. Would be a great idea for resorts to have bins to leave this sort of thing. Anything I don't wear on hols usually goes to charity shop at home, but would be easier to just leave there.

Many of you do not seem to understand the value of this stuff to staff in poor countries. It is currency. I have seen what goes into boxes to be sent to Sri Lanka - what many of you would consider the biggest load of tat! Eg a hanging Santa. An old scratching post. Anything that can be sold literally.

I leave a tip and a note to say thanks typically 1-2 Euro a night.

I used to be a holiday rep and we loved it when people left us stuff!! Got to try all sorts of fancy toiletries we’d never have been able to afford ourselves.

It still is. Visited last year and was asked if we had any children’s medicine as its so hard to get hold of there. We left whatever we didn’t need/could replenish.

Every time you use a bathroom in a public place, you'll be washing your hands with soap from a dispenser that has been used by tens of people that day. A half used bottle of Original Source Lemon & Tea Tree seems positively sterile by comparison.

Dont be so ridiculous. Have you seriously never stayed in a hotel where they have shampoo and body wash attached to the shower walls, they get refilled after guests leave and are there for all to use. Iv stayed in plenty of 4* hotels that do this. Most people dont have an issue with using shared toiletries, theres no contamination, its not food.

@Zov another one who would take your years salary. Dont do it often but I have done it on occasion and would do so again if there was something I needed.

Do you ever participate in book swaps on holiday or use a library or does the thought of another person having touched something offend you too greatly to do that?

In poor countries the hotel staff may be OK as they have work but they will have plenty of friends and family who may not be as fortunate.

We took our holiday in Egypt last year and we had the same cleaner every day. He was very grateful for what my husband left for him. He came to ask him if he would write a note saying it was given to him so as he was covered if management questioned it.

You obviously haven't read the thread then. I'll take your year's salary, and any unused products you were planning to throw in the bin, thanks.

And many people would be very happy to get half a packet of Always, or an opened bottle of 'foreign' shampoo that they would never be able to buy.

Brand names such as Colgate (toothpaste), Head & Shoulders, Vosene, Herbal Essence etc which can be bought cheaply in the UK in pound shops are very expensive in many countries. Your head might blow off if you knew how much Pampers are abroad.

I'm a long way from poor but if I got myself a job cleaning hotel rooms, I would happily use left behind shampoo etc. I hate waste though. It has little to do with the money. I don't really understand the horror.

What a shame this is an anonymous online forum. If this was face to face I think you would be in deep debt.

I leave (nice, unopened, or nearly full) things and decent clothes etc. in less wealthy countries, or where I know the staff are students/not well paid; but probably not in hotels in eg. France, Germany and so on. I would chuck anything that’s nearly empty or not decent quality.

In the US I never leave toiletries or items, but I do always put a few dollars in an envelope or a folded piece of paper each day with “housekeeping” marked clearly on it.

Though even in the U.K. I might leave some things — last year we were in Cornwall and we did a clean of the cottage (we always try to leave places in a decent state), but we couldn’t manage to eat a box of Ferrero Rocher ice creams and it was super hot, so there was no way they would survive in the car. When we had packed up I popped back to tell the cleaners that they were in the freezer and to please take them, and they seemed actually really delighted to have them for their break (and probably more delighted that we’d left the house clean so they could have a break - god knows how some people must leave holiday homes at the end of their stay!)

We went on a Caribbean cruise in November and I asked our room attendant if she could use any toiletries that we were leaving behind and she said yes then the next day she showed us a photo she had taken of a cupboard that they have on the crew deck that was arranged with shelves for shampoo, conditioner, bath products etc and she told us they out everything in there and then all help themselves as everyone likes different things and she said that way all the staff behind the scenes such as the engineering and maintenance staff can benefit as well. She said it saves them so much money and they tend to get really good quality stuff rather than the cheapo brands that they would buy themselves.
She also said any clothes we did not want to take home would also find a good home below decks as although uniforms are provided free there were few places to buy anything at a reasonable price on port stops.

🫣

I have. I recently stayed in an Airbnb and was delighted to find the leftovers from the previous guests.

At Disney hotels, specifically the vacation club resorts (not sure about the others), people leave leftovers in the ice dispenser room and they are gone in moments - these are the really expensive resorts too! It’s a whole ‘thing’ there with fb groups and everything. While the products are taken by guests the principle is the same.

We’ve left stuff in rooms and Airbnb’s before, the thought process being if they don’t want it they can bin it. I am on a 6 figure wage now but would have been chuffed with some toiletries left when I worked as a cleaner in my teen years and still would be now!

It’s not at all! When we went to Kenya they encouraged us to leave anything we didn’t want.

OP clearly used UNUSED products. I’m on a high salary but if someone gave me an unopened pack of Always sanitary pads or sealed toiletries, I’d say thank you very much.

Last Airbnb we stayed in the kitchen and bathroom both had plenty of supplies left my previous guests. We were chuffed given that we’d forgotten to take shower gel with us.

In a lot of countries hotel staff are very poorly paid, especially in the far East. I always tip for good service and, if I've spent a week or two on holiday in the same place I leave a tip and a bar of good chocolate/packet of biscuits - along with a thank you written in the language of the country.

Ah ok, thanks for explaining, my understanding of hyperinflation was that the local currency bombed against all other currencies, meaning PP spending £GBP would find both wages and shampoo cheap, not shampoo expensive, but wages cheap.

I suppose ultimately, I would hope that if I was visiting a country as a tourist, the hotel prices I’d be paying would include fair wages to the staff.

My friend holidayed in Dominican Republic earlier this year, the hotel looked exceptional and it cost £££ - certainly on a par with a 5star in a developed country. It was owned by a multinational company. Posters are declaring DR a country where cleaning staff are really poorly paid. I couldn’t enjoy my holiday knowing that the staff in my luxury hotel weren’t being paid fairly. I’ve only had holidays in developed countries, but I’ll definitely be researching future destinations and local wages more closely now.