Etiquette with toiletries in a hotel

[Holidayornot]

AIBU to pocket them?

I've been lucky enough to stay somewhere pretty naice for last few days and they have fancy assed brand name full size toiletries. My husband says it's not on to pocket them every day but I think it is. What's the etiquette?

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

LeaLander that is missing the point and a ridiculous comparison.

[wiccamum]

Thanks Mrs Hathaway, I will ask around at the school, see if I can drum up a regular collection x

[Sansoora]

Why are some MNters being so snobby? What's all this about giving the right impression "letting yourself down"?

Wicca, did you read any further than the orginal post you've quoted from? Because Im quite sure if you had you wouldn't be so confused.

[2rebecca]

The plastic wouldn't go to waste if it wasn't produced in the first place. If hotel clients take fewer the hotel buys fewer so the manufacturer makes fewer.

[LeaLeander]

Exactly, 2rebecca. It's one thing to use those toiletries if you forgot, or were unable to bring your own. To use it as an opportunity to stockpile is pretty dishonest in my opinion. And factors into the hotel's cost of doing business just as much as if you were stealing the towels or sheets. Not to mention the environmental impact.

[wiccamum]

Well yes I did actually Sansoora....and I still think it whiffs of snobbery!

[wiccamum]

What I mean is Sansoora, why do you need to demonstrate that you are used to staying in posh hotels? What do you need to prove? And by using the toiletries then how are you letting yourself down? Sorry, don't get it,vthink it's stuck up

[Sansoora]

Wicca, you obviously didn't understand the original and subsequent posts I made if you still have to ask. Are you skim reading?

As for letting yourself down if you use the toiletries? Who said that?

[Sansoora]

Wicca, here you are - the explanation you missed.


"Im only repeating what I was once told but I can see my post didn't appear quite as tongue in cheek as I thought it did.'

and later on I posted this in reply to another poster

Seemingly not and I only know this because I was away with my SIL for the weekend recently at a very nice hotel and because she loves smellies and goes everywhere with travel sized bottle of this that and the other I tipped all the wee bottles into her case one day. Seemingly it was a no-no and even worse because I'd given her mine as well - I'd let myself down and insulted her into the bargain. I thought she was joking but her mum who'd been a ladies maid way back in the day had told her never to do it and so she wouldn't.

I did ask her about all the free miniatures from the mini bar on our last cruise that found there way into her suitcase but that was different because they were for medicinal purposes - she uses them to make hot toddies in the winter.


So to clarify - Im almost 60 and my SIL is also. Her mother was a ladies maid cum housekeeper way back in the day and a lot of what she was taught stayed with her throughout her life and this was one of her little gems. But you are correct. It is very snobby, but if you'd read the posts properly and perhaps not let yourself be blinded by indignation you would have seen the bit about 'way back in the day' and realised it was a very long time ago.

[limitedperiodonly]

The first thing I do in hotel rooms is check out the toiletries. I don't if that marks me out as cheapskate and horribly gauche.

I really appreciate it when the management put in something out of the ordinary.

A lovely hotel in Istanbul had compressed loofahs that swelled to full size when you wet them. I've got loads of them. A London hotel had Oral B toothbrushes and those little Y-shaped flossers - my mum got those. A place in Bologna had cotton drawstring bags For Him and For Her with nice toiletries but also things like a good quality disposable razor or tampons. A favourite hotel in Ibiza does little bottles of cologne which are brilliant for cleaning your sunglasses.

Loads of towelling slippers.

Another poster mentioned the Hotel Adlon in Berlin. I've never stayed there. Apparently it's the best hotel in the city. He gave me a very grand big cotton laundry bag with the name of the hotel embroidered on it. He thought I'd like it. He was right. It's hanging on the back of the bathroom door stuffed with various freebies. He has one too and he's not gauche or poor.

[limitedperiodonly]

What I meant to say was thanks to the people who donate to refuges and places like that.

I stayed with my mum in hospital when she was dying. There was a shower room for families of the very ill and the dying, crammed with nice toiletries that the staff had collected from hotels.

You could have used the NHS-issue soap but they decided to make a horrible time a little bit easier

[OllyBJolly]

There was a shower room for families of the very ill and the dying, crammed with nice toiletries that the staff had collected from hotels.

I was a bit shocked that when my sister was in ICU the nurses bought nice toiletries for the patients because the NHS stuff was too harsh for most people and caused skin problems. Think I'll start saving my hotel freebies - I'd never thought of donating them.

[LeaLeander]

Your friend stole the cloth laundry bag from the hotel in Berlin?

[Idliketoteachtheworldtosing1]

Tut tut, how common!!

[Sansoora]

The first thing I do in hotel rooms is check out the toiletries.

I check out the bed, the mini bar, then the room service menu. You can tell a lot about a hotel from its room service menu. And Ive no interest in the toiletries. Im very much a lover of Lux soap and I travel with it wherever I go and regardless of what brand of toiletries await me in the room.

[IrishTeacher]

YANBU. Take them all. Hotels expect you to do so and factor it in to their costs and rates. any half used ones left behind will be binned by the chambermaids.

[IrishTeacher]

oh wait - i didn't read it properly.
if they are mini ones, yes, take.
if they are full size i would say, no take.

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

LeaLander you really are talking rubbish. I am the poster who mentioned staying at the Adlon in Berlin. It's the best hotel in Berlin and was a special treat. The bathroom had loads of travel size toiletries and a sewing kit and there was bottled water , fruit and chocolates in the room. I didn't ask for the fruit and chocolate specially and they weren't charged for separately.

The room was cleaned during the day and then tidied up again in the evening. If the seal had been broken on any of the toiletries or the water new ones were supplied no matter how much was left in the open ones.

The hotel has an overnight shoe shine service and shoes come back in Adlon monogrammed shoe bags. The hotel of course provides dressing gowns. The hotel information gave the price of the dressing gown if you wanted to buy one.

I took unopened toiletries, the sewing kit and a couple of shoe bags with me. These items are costed into the room price. I can't remember exactly how much it was but several hundred euros per night. These items are marketing tools - it makes no difference to the room cost.

The Adlon and hotels like it know that for many of its guests it's a special treat, not an everyday occurrence. They know these items are treated like souvenirs.

[LeaLeander]

Actually I was responding to the poster who said her friend brought her a cloth laundry bag from the hotel Adlon. Were they up for grabs too, or for sale, or expected to be left behind when guests checked out?

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

Irish Teacher many of the top end hotels provide travel size or full size. They really are not bothered if you take them. The Malmaison chain tells you to (probably to avoid threads like this)

Think about it - cost of room at Malmaison say £200-£300 per night - bulk wholesale buy of L'Occitane products -peanuts. Waste of maids' time refilling bottles ? Plus some bottles are sealed or screw capped so can't be used for next guest any way.

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

So far as the Adlon I didn't get laundry done. I'd be surprised however if they were bothered if someone took a laundry bag.

[smellsofelderberries]

I've staying in some places that have Roger & Gallet minis- we stole them every day when they were replenished! They were devine.

[limitedperiodonly]

Actually I was responding to the poster who said her friend brought her a cloth laundry bag from the hotel Adlon. Were they up for grabs too, or for sale, or expected to be left behind when guests checked out?

I didn't ask him LeaLander. I imagine with the amount he spends there as a regular guest they would consider it counterproductive to piss him off by getting up in the air about a laundry bag.

Lass it was you who stayed at the Adlon, was it? It's unlikely that I'd ever go to Berlin and even less likely that I could afford to stay there.