I don’t like bar soap but if I travel from one destination to another, I take the shampoo. Like when I had to leave Arizona. I went to Ohio, then Texas. If I go on a chain of flights, I do take it! And it was very nice when we were driving from Ohio to Arizona when we were moving. It took three nights, and I took all the shampoo and conditioner, because we wouldn’t have any at the house for a night. (the house was completely empty).

If I happen to like the soap I do. The tiny little, generic flat bars that crumble on the first use I leave behind. Even moderately priced hotels are starting to have nicer products. I use the hotel's hand soap but bring my own shampoo and a bar of Dial Gold.

I never use the hotel soap or shampoo. I bring my own body wash and shampoo as I have very sensitive skin. It's bad enough what the strange water does to my hair. ..Sometimes flat...sometimes dry and fly away.

I've never been one for the hotel products. Messes my skin and hair up. I stick with the toiletries I usually use and bring travel sized amounts with me.

Love them on my cycle touring trips! Otherwise, nope, don't need/want them.

Moni

sephia, what a great idea! I may share it. My son travels a lot for work.

My DIL takes them all and puts them in a basket in her guest bathroom. They do get used or taken home by the guests.

I usually skip the bar soap but take the upscale shampoos and conditioners. I put them in a basket in my hall bathroom. Both DD's like to go through and try the samples.

Up until my mother passed in 08 she spent from May thru end of Aug in Alaska. Hotel rooms and always brought me bags full of soap, shampoo, conditioner and lotion. I had no use for anything except the lotion which was a great purse size. I always passed the other stuff along to a neighbor who loved it.

Oh please, a friend used to take the extra roll of toilet paper home with him. He said "I paid for it, it was there for me to use" and so he thought that was okay. I just thought it was strange.

When I remember, I take unused toilettry items and donate to our women shelters. Always in high demand.

I never think to take hotel toiletries. I travel with my own, so I don't usually touch the ones supplied by the hotel.

I rarely stay more than one night in a hotel. I hate opening a whole bar of soap knowing it'll be thrown away the next morning, so I use a dab of my own shampoo to wash hands with. I don't take any of products home.

Yes, i take them if i need them. I like to keep 2 soap bars and shampoos in my travel bag. If I have two already, i dont take them. I don't keep lotions and conditioners... Or toilet paper. :)

I travel with my own products and rarely use anything from the hotel vanity, but I have taken their sample sized shampoo or soap which I then pass on to our clothes bank. Clothes bank, but they do have a request list for bedding, cookware, and are happy to receive unopened toiletries.

LOL Janie, it wouldn't occur to me to take the TP, Kleenex, 0r - wash cloths, iron or blow dryer. Although I agree, with the price of a nice hotel any more, I almost feel I've paid to furnish it ;))

Morz, they usually have better ironing boards than I have LOL.

I bring my own products, but take the soaps and shampoos home. I give them to the senior center near me. They send them to shut ins who can use them.

Sometimes I take the stuff home.

There are some charities that accept bar soap for use in Haiti where cholera has been a problem ever since the earthquake. Handwashing decreases the chance of catching and spreading cholera.

Some charities accept open bars of soap directly from US hotels. Some accept soap donations from individuals. To us in the US, soap seems pretty cheap, but in Haiti it can be too expensive for some. Sorry I don't have a specific charity to share. It would be nice to know which hotels do this, too.

My husband is traveling a lot for work. Thankfully he is not bringing the hotel stuff home, but the little bags from the flights are always adding up. Some get used for weekend trips by my daughter, the cases used as pencil cases and such, but it’s way too much. There was a lady once picking them up for her church after I posted them for free on Craigslist (there were about a hundred), but not trusting this anymore. Any idea who to contact? Just stick them in the boxes for Goodwill? Did that before, but don’t know if they would use them for something. The thing on the top is actually a mirror.

Goodwill would be fine, or any one of a zillion charity shops. Also, homeless shelters, women's shelters. Some public schools here would give them out to students in need.

Iris, I donate our unused airline amenity kits to a local agency that gives them to people who have suddenly become homeless, either because of fire, losing a job, fleeing domestic violence, etc. These people often leave with only the clothing they are wearing and those little kits can really help them out for a few days until they can get their bearings and find a more permanent place to stay. They really like these partly because they do come in a kit which makes them easy to transport and carry, plus the kits can be used for other things when the products have been used up.

When I was working at the school, my sister and I used to collect hotel toiletries and when I had enough, I would make hygiene kits for low income or homeless students. The kits usually contained soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, deodorant, toothpaste and a toothbrush. The school would pay for the deodorant, toothpaste and deodorant out of homeless funds that were received from the state and the rest of the kit was made up of the products from various hotels. They were very much appreciated by many of our students.

Edited to add that I do take the hand lotion because it's a perfect purse size. I've usually already opened and used it, so it doesn't make sense not to take it.

It's so funny you asked this. A few days ago, The Banff Fairmont hotel (Canadas Castle in the mountains) asked the same thing on Instagram. I responded (see my link). YES! I took it all, including the tea (which I forgot to take a picture of) that was with the Keurig machine in our room. For $500 a night, I'm sure they expect their guests to take the soaps and lotions, if they don't use them. It was paid for. Right?

My pretties from the Banff Fairmont Hotsprings Hotel

I don’t usually take the hotel soaps and things. We do use the hand soap and DH sometimes uses the shampoo. Unless I really like the small bottle of lotion (I am really picky about lotion) or if it is really nice soap, I might take it for later use.

I always take them and donate after I've got a bagful. Do I remember a post quite a few years ago regarding whether it was the right thing or the wrong thing to take them? I never could understand why anyone wouldn't take them, as they've been paid for with the room.

No, I don't take anything. I'll use what I need and leave both what's opened and unopened.

By the reasoning some of you are using ("I paid for it"), do you take home towels and pillows too?

There's quite a difference between consumables such as soap, shampoo and lotion (hotels expect guests to take those complimentary items) and non-consumables such as as towels, pillows, linens, lamps, televisions, etc., which are considered permanent fixtures of hotel rooms.

I think most people know they shouldn't take the towels or pillows.

edited for clarity

I take the bar soap, but nothing else. I prefer the smaller bars in my Powder Room at home, at that is how I keep it supplied.

I used to but not anymore. I try to use more natural hygiene and beauty products and those usually aren't.

"I think most people know..... "

I've heard the same sentiment extended to other things as I suggested. It's just one more step down the path as with debby's comment "For $500 a night, I'm sure they expect their guests......." . Which for me, doesn't follow.

In Europe I don'[t take them because I don't want to add to the weight of my bag. At home, I do take them and donate them to a women's shelter. I also donate the cosmetics that come in those freebie bags from Clinique and others.

I'm not sure what you mean there, Elmer. Are you suggesting that taking the hotel soap is going to lead to taking bigger things like towels and pillows?

When I was going to conferences with some frequency, I learned to bring my own soap, preferably Dove, because hotel soaps seemed to be so drying to my skin.

dawn, what I was trying to say (and wasn't very eloquent in trying) was that I've encountered people whose "I paid good money, they owe me" or "At those prices, they expect it" attitudes weren't limited to walking out with a bar of soap or a small bottle of shampoo. Hotels owe guests nothing but the use of a room as advertised.

For those of you who really want to support a local shelter or charity of whatever kind, write them a check. They can do more with donated money (and probably have more need for money) than donated bars of soap and small bottles of shampoo.

I'm sorry Elmer, but I find your ideas on this matter ridiculous. If a (free) bottle of water is left on the table by the hotel management, do you leave it alone?

Give me a break, sjerin. Again, maybe better words would have been more clear but I think you should see I'm referring to an attitude, those who think they're entitled. Who believe they are owed something for their patronage and justify sticky fingers in that way.

A complimentary bottle of water (or anything else)? If I choose to use it, I do. If I don't use it, I leave it. I don't gather up all the "stuff" to take with me.

I don't touch water anymore after opening what I thought was a complimentary bottle of water in a cruise cabin and receiving a $9 charge! Most expensive water ever.

Maybe hotels should issue price lists of every item in a hotel room when guests check-in. Like how they do with the mini-bar. It could go something like this: $20/towel, $40/pillow, $500/television, $50/lamp, $3/toiletry item, etc. When guests check out whatever they take with them would be charged to their bill.

The apartment we rented in Thailand actually did this. At checkout, they send someone in to take inventory and if anything is missing, it is added to the bill. We were charged for a missing glass - I broke it when I dropped it in the kitchen sink.

I have seen this too! Price lists for items in the hotel. I don't remember where it was.

Once on a professional trip I was with an otherwise brilliant and charismatic dude who was completely obsessed with his religion and he asked the checkout person at a Sheraton if it would be stealing if he took the unused soap for his boy scout troop. She said it was advertising and gave him a box full, a gross.

Wow!... On the other hand, on a canoe-camping trip in an area attractive to Boys Scouts, I saw soap bubbles floating by whenever we approached a BS camp. I know there are soaps said to be better for use outdoors. I wonder f they are really any different than hotel soaps. The soap film and bubbles did not seem like a good thing on the lakes, though.

Elmer, of course I don't take linens. That's actually a stupid comparison. The hotel expects you to use them but give them back. They also expect you to use the lotions, soaps, shampoo and conditioner. Once those are used you can't give them back. So I take what I don't use, home.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BinvP4Fl-_k/?taken-by=fairmontbanff