Complimentary hotel toiletries .. no sanitary towels

[TwentySmackeroos]

I’m in a fancy hotel on my holidays (total beach/resort set-up; not corporate at this time of year) and the tray of free toiletries includes:
Shampoo
Conditioner
Shower gel
Bar of soap
Loofah/scrapy sponge thing
Make-up remover towelettes
Toothbrush/toothpaste set
Comb
Manicure set
Sewing kit
Shoe shine scuff fixer
Razor and shave balm

All the above have been replenished daily as used.

Meanwhile, a pack of panty liners retails in the hotel shop at €3.90. Tampax are €4.50.

Caught unawares (seven months into my first Mirena), I’ve been wadding loo roll and rinsing my bikini bottoms nightly. And obviously bought the panty liners when it became clear I needed to.

I’m a hotel middle-level manager (but no input into purchasing, in my role). Most guests here are parents under 45 with kids. There are loads of toilet facilities (spotless and well maintained) but no dispensing machines in any.

AIBU to think a sanitary towel or three in the toiletries tray is a reasonable expectation, when all other ‘immediate’ sanitary needs are?—and the shoe scuff fixer is not a pressing need IMO—

The majority of hotel guest are male

Whether that's true or not, it's not the reason.

The reason is that the majority of hotel managers are male.

This is from years ago on why hotels don't have toothpaste (much) and might be relevant here:
www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2013/07/toothpaste_in_hotels_why_do_they_provide_shampoo_soap_and_high_end_toiletries.html

Plus costs will be factored in on a weekly or fortnight stay. How many shoe shine sponges can someone actually get through? Freebies aren't factored into costing as daily replaced items in hotels. Sorry, I don't mean to sound goady but it's common sense.

I've never actually noticed that before, but now op mentions it, it's a fair point.
(I'm on the pill so I always know when my withdrawal bleed will happen, but for those that don't it's a good idea).

Ive been in quite a few hotels in the last 10 years on business trips. Sanpro is nearly always available at the front desk at no cost and they deliver to your room leaving it on the floor by your room so you don't have to leave your room to go get it.

The only place it wasn't was a nasty hotel in Orlando by Disney which wasn't that low cost but was cheap in terms of service. They had a 24hr shop you could buy items from. I wrote a scathing review because I'd had DD3 8 weeks before and unexpectedly started my period and walking down to the store to buy some crappy pads was ridiculous when the hotel was $300 a night. On the final day they had us vacate our rooms and I was pumping. I needed to go somewhere and they wouldn't give me a private room. I reported them to the department of health and department of labor for not having lactation facilities available. Fuckers.

@Want2beSupermum but you do realise that'd you'd have to vacate the room to accommodate cleaning staff and that would have been clearly stated in the check out times? Most hotels will generally let you extend that for an additional fee if you request it and they have a vacancy. Plus your period is not a hotels personal responsibility to manage. The lactation space is another matter entirely of course.

flying I needed a place to pump. If my room wasn't available they should have provided me with an alternative that wasn't a toilet cubicle.

@Want2beSupermum I completely agree and stated so in my post. However I also expressed that it's not a hotels responsibility to fund a woman's period requirements anymore than they could be expected to provide a unlimited complimentary supply of nappies or incontinence pads. At some point they would financially have to draw a line somewhere.

It really isn't cost prohibitive to provide 1-2 pads. Heck we have four women at work and I've put a pack of pads and Tampax in the ladies bathroom. It cost me less than $10 and there was enough for at least 2 full 7 day cycles of each pads and tampax.

But that's to cater for 4 women not a potential 200 or more in a large scale hotel. As previously stated in those thread what happens if items are replenished on a daily basis? And potentially its because people take them vs actually utilise them. I still state the main issue is down to women being financially penalised on needing access to essential feminine hygiene products overall and the pricing system surrounding it leading to period poverty worldwide.

Which I personally feel is a bigger issue to push back against vs hotels not being economically able to provide period products to cater for female guests who theoretically can probably afford to supply or provide their own. I fully accept that's my own view and I'm probably massively unreasonable.

Or just have them available at the front desk which is what most hotels do here in America. You call the front desk or email them and within 10mins someone has run up with a pad or two in a white rice box normally so you don't just have sanpro on the floor outside your door.

In a "white rice box" In the UK sanitary items were traditionally discreetly covered up in a brown paper bag to 'save on embarrassment'. It's such a shame we haven't moved on much since those days for women - sorry massive detail from thread there.

Well other stuff was in a box too. Would look bloody odd just there on a tray when normally personal hygiene items are discrete.

I totally agree. I stay in hotels regularly and I've never seen any sanitary products in a room.

As for the people who say different women use different products, it's true, but anything is better than nothing when you're caught out - just one or twofold get you through until you get to a shop. Plus, everyone uses different hair products, it doesn't stop them providing shampoo..

Business class toilets on Emirates planes provide all manner of toiletries ...including sanitary pads

How much does a basic santitary pad cost? It can't cost too much more than the little bottles of body wash etc that the hotels provide and yet could have a much bigger impact on someone's stay. Also they're presumably less likely to be used/taken by male guests who wouldn't have a need for them so wouldn't need to be replaced everytime, unlike the little bottles of toiletries that I think lots of people use or take home.

For me it all comes down to customer service and repeat custom. If I went to a hotel that had sanpro in the bathroom when I was in desperate need this would have a huge effect on my stay and therefore my perception of the hotel. Being seen to go the extra mile to meet the needs of your customers can drive people to recommend businesses to their friends and also make them less price sensitive as they reason that although the hotel isn't the cheapest, the facilities they offer mean it still represents good value for money. Of course hotels have to draw the line somewhere but I would definitely swap the sewing kit and shoe buffing set for some emergency sanpro.

Also all those people saying that this issue only affects women who make up the minority of hotel guests, so what? A very small minority of people are only ever going to need a sewing kit whilst staying at a hotel and yet these are provided.

I have never seen liners or pads with other hotel room amenities, but I have often seen them in baskets in the various rest rooms of the hotels, off the lobby, off the restaurants and bars, off the conference rooms and ballrooms.

I visit a museum of transport a few times a year. It's run and staffed by volunteers and certainly doesn't have a 5 star rating, but there are free sanitary products in the Ladies there!

Of course they should provide emergency sanitary towels. I can't believe the number of comments against this?!? Women can't help when they bleed and hotels must have to deal with accidents all over their sheets plenty enough?

I’m not getting this TBH - but then maybe I’m just staying at the more basic end where we’re looking at soap and shampoo.

Which one @cloudyweewee ?

The entire FWR board must visit them this summer to encourage them

I’ve visited lots of hotels where they’re available if you ask

I say get rid of the body lotion, who the fuck uses hotel body lotion and replace with a pad and a tampon. I use the soap, shampoo and conditioner in hotels that's it, although I do confess to stealing the shower cap to take home.

I think it's partly an aesthetic thing.
I;m not sating you are wrong OP.

But as a PP said there is no " need" for Jo Malone handwash.

It's to do with the marketing, the image etc.

So you may get some chocolate on your pillow, some rose petals on your bed, some abernethy biscuits or an eye mask, not the things you actually "need".

Much like you may give a toiletry box to an aunt aunt at christmas, with a manicure set, bubble bath, a bath candle, but you wouldn't include sanpro.

You speak "hotel " language- go have a word with the manager.

I think I’m very much in the minority... but I’m not sure why women expect everyone else to take care of their period at the moment.

It seems like there are so many campaigns around it all... from tax to being allowed to talk about it out loud.

The only one I think needs a campaign is the fact that some people can’t afford their sanpro, that needs addressing (although even that’s been made a bit of a mockery of... £25 per month? 🙄)

Women have periods, they’re ours... we need to deal with them, it’s not up to the rest of society to subsidise them for us imo. Freebies are not really necessary.. just always keep an emergency stash 🤷🏻‍♀️