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

I asked an English girl last year who lived in Greece if these things get binned or used & she said she uses them and sometimes it’s nice to get familiar brands from back home .
I leave shower gel , shampoo , conditioner & usually a full pack of sanitary towels ( that I always take on holiday never knowing if I’m going to come on ) .
I also leave children’s toiletries as I buy different ones ( child’s farm specifically ) so hopefully they don’t get wasted .
I remember being asked for my toiletries in Cuba as they’re so expensive to buy there for the locals .
I wouldn’t leave stuff in a UK hotel though , would expect it to be binned .

I spent most of my twenties working in the med. The staff were a mixture of Brits, Antipodeans and locals and we all loved left behind toiletries, unopened food was also gratefully received. Why on earth would I want to bin shampoo and suncream and then spend my own money buying them?

From seeing the cleaners gleefully comparing hauls on changeover days, this hasn't changed in the last decade.

As there seems to be no consensus even amongst hospitality staff, my preferred method is to leave all things together in one place, so they can be taken or easily binned without creating more work for the cleaners.

If I don't want to take something home it's left in the room, in the bin or beside it. It's up to the staff if they want to take it or chuck it.

I once left a partly used aftersun as my case was overweight and the maid ran after me and asked if she was ok to take it. She explained her little boy had very dry skin and they were constantly spending money on moisturiser for him and this worked just as well.

If she didn’t want it, I imagine she’d put it in the bin!

I have taken stuff down to the street if there are homeless people. Said do you want this or know anyone who could use this.

Also offer things to maids. Don’t just randomly dump stuff.

Who said anything about it being in lieu of tips?

What's amazing is the posters who have so little sense of their wealth that they would actually throw perfectly good products in the bin just because they've been opened. And the horror expressed that anyone would think of opened shampoo as anything but waste. Let them eat cake.

This is why the planet's fucked.

Last year people posted on the resorts Facebook page x, y, x outside room xxx

it was an hours flight from Florida and heavily US guests who tended to come for 3/4 days and just bring carry on so there was a huge appetite for these types of products, especially sun cream as that was really expensive at the place

when we’ve gone to Spain etc, we’ve just bought home/binned depending on what it is and left euros for the cleaning staff

You are clearly better informed than me. I was just sharing my own experience. I left stuff in response to being asked. I promise I wasn't just dumping my old crap where it wasn't wanted.

Just checked - Morocco trip was 2010 and Tunisia was 2013 so possibly my limited experience may be long out of date.

You must book into some right dumps, leaving partially used products in the hall for other guests to snaffle.
I suppose in your scenario were guests book in that sort of hotel, and have inadequate product,some guests need someone else’s discarded product dregs

Fortunately I’ve ever been in such a position or such a place

I am by no means on the bread line. But when people leave stuff in my holiday let i don’t find it one bit offensive. I have no issue using someone’s left bottle of spray deodorant, there half bottle of shampoo or body wash. Would not use a roll on deodorant. Wrapped sanitary pads/tampax no issue using those.
What I do find offensive is people throwing perfectly good things that others could choose to use in the bin.
The food waste I see breaks my heart e.g box of eggs, 2 used and the other 4 thrown in the bin🥲

Would you be happy to be tipped a half empty bottle of shampoo then? The issue is not everyone is going to appreciate it and some will be insulted by it.

When travelling to countries where the staff are likely to be living in relative poverty, I’ve never left used items but I have deliberately packed things with the intention of giving them away e.g unopened perfume, children’s clothes and shoes. I usually suggest they either keep or pass on to someone who will appreciate. This would be in addition to a tip.
I don’t think I’d feel it was ever appropriate to leave used toiletries for someone.

I take very short business trips around the world and try not to check luggage, so will buy shower gel, shampoo etc in Boots after security at the airport. As I use very little of it and can’t take it home, I will leave it for staff on the desk with a tip. Throwing away just feels really wasteful.

Morocco is a middle income country with a healthy economy, it doesn't have large swathes of the population so poor they are desperate for half empty toiletries. You encountered someone either exceptionally poor or very polite. It's definitely not an example of somewhere with a desperate population grateful for every scrap!

Tunisia is a much poorer country so I can't comment on that.

Exactly. A dd working in Ethiopia used regularly to take back a suitcase of still good but no longer wanted e.g. men’s shirts, and all sorts. They were all very happily received. Returning once for their orthodox Christmas (6th Jan) she took really nice soap for the women, since the only affordable stuff locally wasn’t at all nice, and not cheap either.

Returning once to Haiti she took a whole large suitcase full of 2nd hand children’s shoes, given by friends and family, for the many children who couldn’t go to school because they had no shoes. Might add that at check in she told BA staff what was in the case, and they waived the hefty excess baggage charge.

Some MNers evidently have absolutely no idea.

This is such a good idea. I always leave a tip as a one off in the room before checking out.

No, never heard of that. I just leave a tip where that's the done thing.

We made friends with a barman in Turkey once ( still in touch occasionally almost 25 years on). He told us to leave any opened toiletries, as they weren’t paid much and they were very grateful. He also asked if I had any paperbacks as his sister was studying English and books in English were very expensive. I left him a heap of them (pre kindle days) and you would have thought I had given him a million quid! We also tipped him, and when we got home sent him an old mobile phone, as he said they were totally unaffordable for him, he sent me a beautiful thank you card. So I don’t get the posters that are horrified by leaving stuff, when people don’t earn much they are often very happy to get stuff like this. And if they don’t want it, the bin is right there.

I've been to Cape Verde a couple of times, and always left things for the maids to take. It's very poor, and toiletries, pain killers and sanitary products are very expensive as everything has to be imported.

The second time I went, I took extra specifically for them.

I remember giving the maid a tip of around £20 at the end of the holiday, and she cried because it was the equivalent of a month's wages.

In Turkey we stayed at the same resort a few times when the kids were little. The general rule was look for the pasty kid on the last day and give them your pool toys/inflatables. On our third year the cleaner recognised us and asked very politely if they could have any inflatables, toiletries etc we wouldn't be taking back. We were very happy to oblige. They did ask that we wrote a note explaining we were happy to give them so they weren't accused of stealing as they had searches every day on leaving the resort.

I’ve never heard of this being a thing but if it was I’d leave them along with a note.

I worked (briefly) as a hotel receptionist in the UK and frankly it put me off touching anything that people leave behind.

Why not just leave them standing by the bin and the cleaner can make up their own mind? Kind of a half way house.

Is this in the UK? When me and mum went to Cuba we took extra stuff for the maids because there are shortages of things like sanitary products. Some people would post on the hotel groups what the maids needed. We also took colouring books and crayons for their children

We leave cash but we will also leave other things sometimes. Depends where you are. Toiletries are really expensive in parts of the Caribbean - so yes, they'll be disappointed on Antigua if you dont.

In the Gambia our old reading glasses were much valued. At a posh African safari ranch I left English books, nothing else.

Huh? What country are we taking about here, 'cos I've never done, seen or experienced this in UK, Europe or the US in over fifly years...