Hotel housekeeping should keep a supply of sanitary products.

[HappyDaze23]

I’m at a nice hotel (4*) on a work trip. Mix of mostly corporate and a few holiday clients. Got up for a wee in the night and was surprised to find I’d started my period a few days early and of course I hadn’t packed my moon cup. As I don’t use tampons I’m out of the habit of carrying spares.

I checked the hotel room info: ‘housekeeping are here to provide for your every comfort’. If you need a shaving or dental kit etc and a few things were listed. So I called them. First I had to repeatedly explain what I was looking for to the chap at reception- sanitary products, ladies sanitary products, tampax/tampons and then suggested that he asked a female colleague as they would explain. The poor guy then called back to explain they don’t typically have any but they did have some left over from a wedding guest basket that I could have. He brought them up and of course I really appreciated him doing that but AIBU to think that if they can produce a shaving kit (for a man, I think we can reasonably assume) then really they should consider having tampons/towels available for when a female guest has an emergency?

I have seen free sanitary products, deodorant etc in restaurants, cafes, public toilets, bars

My periods are regular and usually predictable but very heavy! I’ve had my fair share of menstrual dramas but this is the first time I’ve been caught out without having something I can use. Now I’m also wondering if this is the first sign of perimenopause?’

Typically they have a machine in the toilets in the public area of the hotel,

Hotels in the country I live usually have them.

However YABU. What ever happened to personal responsibilty? Always take your own, just in case. It's called planning ahead, which really isn't that difficult.

If only we were all so perfect

Fucking hell, condoms? Concealer? Are these really that much of a necessity? And honestly who forgets to bring toothpaste etc? The only time I can see that happening is with some kind of emergency where you have to evacuate to a hotel!

Bring your own conditioner, it isn't that hard.

I work in a hotel and we don't provide sanpro.
Last week a lady asked me if we had any so I gave her what I had in my own handbag.
I do think all hotels should have some that they can give out if needed, I'm sure most of us women have been caught out at some point.

@Cosyblankets nothing to do with perfection...learn to plan ahead, it's not difficult.

I always have some on me, it's not exactly a surprise I have a period

It's funny really that all women carry sanitary products with them all the time . It's not something you're told to do .It's not like we remove them from our bags when our period is finished .It's just natural for some reason . I would be very surprised if there is a woman who didn't carry them with her permanently . At least enough to tide you over until you can reach a shop .

YANBU. This happened to me also. It arrived 2 weeks early! and of course at the most inconvenient time - 2am.
The hotel didn't have any. They had a shop though - which opened at 10am.
Helpful, thanks.
I made it to the hotel shop next morning and bought a very price inflated box of tampons for £9.99, I shit you not.
The hotel was not near shops - think country hotel and I was there without a car, so would have cost me more to get a taxi to the nearest shop to buy regular priced ones.
It actually made me pretty angry at the cost. I mean its not like its a frivolous luxury item I was buying on a whim from the hotel gift shop. It was a box of tampax. How they can justify charging that just made me really cross.
I mean i'm glad they actually had some in the shop, but it felt like taking complete advantage of someones misfortune.

You are looking for perfection though. You're saying that hotels should assume that women should never in their reproductive life ( about 500 months?) have a stay that's unexpectedly longer than they packed for, a bleed mid month that lasts longer than the couple of tampons left over from last month, a post-menopausal bleed, a young daughter who starts away from home (when you yourself use tampons or moon cup), a breakthrough bleed when your contraception has prevented them for years, the unexpected beginning of perimenopausal flooding. Or just picked up the wrong handbag, or rushed out to catch a train leaving their sanpro bag on the table.

If you're saying that it's inexcusable for any of these things to happen to you once in five hundred occasions then yes I think you're asking for perfection.

I don't carry any. I don't have periods.

How patronising!
You've no idea why a situation might arise why someone might not have sanpro with them. When i had to travel as an emergency to a sick relative the last thing on my mind was that my period might arrive a week or so early.

Well neither do I anymore , did take me a long time to remove them from my bag ..because you never know 😂 .

Indeed - men should never forget their shaving kits but apparently, hotels are happy to provide this stuff for them.

Yes, most women carry supplies but also, there cannot be a single, solitary woman who hasn't been caught out at least once in her life (and as PP have suggested, that can include a DD who begins menstruating for the first time).

It wouldn't have occurred to me to call reception for tampons! I would have used toilet paper and slept with a bathroom towel on the bed incase of spills, then gone to a pharmacy/shop/24hr shop the next morning!

Are hotels supposed to provide all tampon sizes, with and without applicators, moon cups, period pants in all sizes and a selection of pads too?

However YABU. What ever happened to personal responsibilty? Always take your own, just in case. It's called planning ahead, which really isn't that difficult.

It clearly is not an infallible system though. Or no one would have ever done it. And it's happened to me too.

So I'm guessing it's happened to others. And yes it was hard.

Seriously , you're hilarious.

If you can forget a razor or even a toothbrush you can definitely forget sanitary protection. God alive.

Of course the hotel should have a supply if they're providing "every comfort". Def designed by men.

Put it on the comments slip.

yanbu
last hotel we stayed at reception provided what you describe but there also was a vending machine where you could buy 'extras' including tampons & pads.

Are hotels supposed to provide all tampon sizes, with and without applicators, moon cups, period pants in all sizes and a selection of pads too?

Don't be ridiculous. Having a small supply of regular towels and tampons for emergencies is hardly going to kill them. Of course they don't need to stock period pants and moon cups! You are just being ridiculous.

I was under the impression that reception could supply shaving kits for a charge, not that they were free.

Are hotels supposed to provide all tampon sizes, with and without applicators, moon cups, period pants in all sizes and a selection of pads too?

🙄

Yes because I'm sure they provide every type of razor and foam and oil and gel.

And all toothbrushes and types of toothpaste.

I always do anyway. Never use the hotel stuff unless it is obviously high end.

@Scalottia

We're getting the picture. You don't forget stuff.

And you're always prepared, for everything, including impromptu sex.

Very well done to you.

Once again the poster who can't imagine anything different to the way it is for them.