To take the body lotion and soap from a £250 a night hotel? They have asked for it back!!!

[mum2sons]

DH and I spent our wedding anniversary in a v expensive boutique hotel. I took the body lotion and soap home as I usually would do (sad, but I get v excited about these things!)Yesterday we received a letter from the hotel asking for us to send the 2 items back for the future enjoyment of guests!!! Talk about humiliation! Looking forward to MNetters views

oh no they sound like the sort of people who will post on the thread if you do that

It is shocking, isn't it, Sherlock, to harrass and embarrass one's guests after they've gone.

yes if they put little notes guests would think 'how petty' this way they sneakily write to those who assume they've paid for the toiletries in exorbitant room rates and think everyone else is none the wiser to their pettiness

how wrong can one be?

I don't think people are being hysterical on this thread either, just surprised.

link please??

If it was a US hotel, Piffle, I seriously doubt they would ever consider writing such a rude letter to a customer after they'd left, unless the guest had damaged the property.

Even then, the only correspondence they'd probably send is regarding how the guest's credit card was charged to pay for the damage and the name and address of the hotel's solicitor so the guest could contact the firm with any issues regarding the matter.

Is this how the infamous grape thread started?

if there was a note in the bathroom saying please leave the toiletries behind for refilling for reuse i would be abit shocked

(Sorry to hijack thread; re baked beans thread yesterday) Nadine, I would not stay at that Hotel. I have had a look at their breakfast menu and they do not include baked beans on the English Grill Breakfast meal. What kind of place is that?
Outrageous! No wonder they want their bottles back.

I think people are empathetic. They think how much a letter like this would have ruined their experience. A wedding anniversary stay in a hotel costing £250 a NIGHT is a huge deal to most people. Much anticipated, enjoyed and looked back on fondly. Then to get this really does ruin it all. What next? Writing to you to say you used too much salt and pepper at dinner? That you left a mark on the towels that was particularly hard to remove and what was it please? That they suspect you of leaving a muddy footprint in reception?

I wouldn't. If they had a placard stating their green policy, I don't see where that's different from a sign regarding towel washing, fire safety measures, check out procedures and time, rules, etc.

I disagree Nadine. I never thought it petty.

For example. We booked into a nice hotel in Cambodia. On check-in the nice lady offered to upgrade us to the Honeymoon suite with an interconnecting room for the children. It was pretty swish.

The bathroom (with a mahoosive jacuzzi) was packed with various toiletries. Some of them were in really pretty ceramic bottles. I did not think it in the least bit petty that there was a little note placed behind them stating that the bottles were for sale and to enquire should you like to buy one.

I am a hotel addict btw who spends hours poring over hotel sites/Mr&MrsSmith/Conde Nast Traveller and I'm quite prepared to spend £250+ a night for a special occasion and have done so several times over the past few years. I would be FURIOUS if a hotel did this to me. It's so petty and anti customer. It's sales prevention in fact.

well said Aloha

there are links in the thread already

I wonder how many of their guests they have to write to (must be a fair few).

Hold on a minute most five star hotels have notes int he pockets of the bathrobes saying that if you want one buy it and if you take one it will be charged to the rooms credit card.

true expat I know I have shed some pretty negative opinions about the US BUT the service their is second to none - kick ass customer first, always

fox - i cannot find an actual veiw of the BOTTLES!

I'll be going home tonight to lovingly look at my bottles of Mandalay Bay (Las Vegas) toiletries in the shower. They are such a great momento - and definitely mine for the taking.

The right thing for the hotel to do would be to realise that the way they are presenting their "re-fillable bottles" is unclear and take steps to rectify the problem. It is bad business to humiliate previous guests. Complimentary toiletries are the norm in decent hotels, so they should take the loss of thier bottles as feedback and do something about it internally to ensure it doesn't continue. Mount them on the wall for goodness sake!
Sounds like the manager needs a refresher course in hospitality!

Hotels are big business, Piffle, and it's hard to turn a profit long-term for most. Really.

Customer satisfaction is crucial in this industry, because hotels do a HUGE amount of business in word of mouth.

For example, in my work, I book visitors in hotels all the time. Every week, just about.

If I hear back from one of guests that they had a poor experience in a hotel, and I don't get a satisfactory explanation for our visitor, I don't book any more people in that hotel.

And I advise the School and College of our visitor's poor experience.

hmm, must admit, having seen the dispensers, have to say i wouldn't have nicked them...but what an awful letter to recieve, Mums2...!
(still sniggering at the thought of all us mumsnetters swishing out of hotels with our pockets full of booty (soap, stationary, ashtrays, Egyptian cotton sheets with high thread counts, armoaterapy massage pillows, window boxes, cutrains and pelmets....antique four-posters... )

Has anyone read Hotel Babylon? It says that guests steal the oddest things. They don't always stop at robes/towels, they take all sorts. (I'm not suggesting this is stealing btw, I don't think it is, I think it's entirely reasonable to take toiletries and that hotels should expect that you will!)

If they have a green policy it should be made clear in the room, a polite notice explaining that the bottles are reused would be acknowledged and welcomed by most people with half a brain cell. Also they should be using recycled glass bottle anyway if they want to be truly sustainable

I think the OP was wronged in this instance and I would decant the product and send it back along with a letter outlining some of the arguekments put forward in this post.

(BTW I am a lecturer in Tourism and Sustainability )

WWW, one of my first cousin's is a sous-concierge in a major 5 star hotel in NYC, and she has stories about things people take that blow my mind.

Truth really is stranger than fiction.

Incidentally, she is a graduate of the Cornell University school of hospitality and tourism, a programme that's highly competitive and hard to get into.