Why do you throw the Bible away? That makes no sense. Even if you are a hard core atheist the Bible being there should not be offensive.
Consumable goods may be taken, whether opened or unopened, though I usually don’t bother. These include shampoo, conditioner, skin lotion, soap, paper or plastic cups, teabags, coffee packets, sugar, creamer, and swizzle sticks. I suppose even toilet paper would be OK, though I would never take that.
Durable goods should be left behind. These include–among other things–towels, washcloths, bedding, coffee maker, toilet paper holder, and ice bucket.
But is it always obvious whether the bottles have been opened or not?
I’m almost positive that taking consumables like soap and shampoo isn’t stealing in a legal sense: you won’t get into trouble for doing so. Ethically, I can see both sides. IMHO there’s nothing really wrong with it, but if it troubles your conscience, don’t do it.
I experience the exact opposite. I run an Airbnb out of the basement of my house and I am drowning in toiletries.
I provide giant-sized bottles of hand soap, bodywash and shampoo. Guests use them, but they never take them with them when they leave. Instead, more often than not, guests will leave their own barely used toiletries behind. I have an entire bathroom cabinet filled with tiny bottles of shampoo, conditioner, bodywash, cologne/perfume, moisturizer, toothpaste, you name it. I leave the stuff there for other guests to use, and some do. Not complaining- it’s just amusing.
No surprise there. Giant-size bottles don’t seem like the kind of thing that are meant to be taken by guests (even if they didn’t have trouble fitting them in their luggage). Single-serve bottles do.
I don’t travel much but it’s rare I see a Bible in a hotel room. Maybe the Gideons are not replacing them if they are taken.
I guess I am alone on this one.
If we are talking about unopened soap, shampoo, etc., no, you should not take it. In my mind the hotel is providing it for your use while you are staying at the hotel (or, if partially used, whenever).
I don’t think the idea is for 5-day guests to squirrel away 5 little shampoo bottles and 5 bars of soap by the end of their stay.
Unless I am misinterpreting the responses.
mmm
From what I recall, if you are there 5 days they don’t give you 5 bottles if you don’t use them. Maybe they do at higher end places but I typically stay at Days Inn, Hampton Inn, etc.
That’s really weird logic. I suspect that not only do they have value, but if you ask the purchasing agent, they can tell you in dollars and cents exactly what that value is. If the hotel considered them to have no value, they wouldn’t be there at all.
So I am on the “it’s not stealing” side of the argument. As someone upthread said, they’re consumables. Motels expect guests to use them, just like the coffee and the creamer and the swizzle sticks.
We only stay in motels a couple times a year, but I like having a handful of motel toiletries in the bathroom drawer for those times that I run out of shampoo or soap and have forgotten to add it to the weekly shopping list (which happens a couple of times a year, alas).
We’ll be doing a ~10 day road trip starting next week and staying in motels the entire way. While I don’t plan on asking for extra toiletries at each stop just to take with us, any that we don’t use we’ll take and add to the little extant stash we already have.
I’ve always taken the samples with me, ever since I heard that they had to throw them away if you don’t. That’s not necessarily true, but I still do it, and donate them.
And last time I stayed in a hotel, I took the Bible even though I have several at home because that translation was much easier to read. I don’t think the hotel buys them anyway; they are donated by the Gideons. Marriott hotels also have the Book of Mormon because they are owned by a Mormon family.
(Never seen any other holy book in a hotel room, but that doesn’t mean that an owner might not put out the Quran or the Bhagavad-Gita.)
Are you outside the U.S.?
Or that high schoolers could be so…clumsy? 
Motel/hotel guests who discover a body under the bed or in the mattress are not entitled to take it with them. Proper etiquette says that you leave the corpse for the next guests.
You should leave it if it’s in unused condition. Otherwise, it’s okay to take it.
One hotel I stay at regularly has a sign reminding guests that all amenities EXCEPT TOILETRIES are for use during your stay only and should not be removed from the room. The emphasis was mine but I think that constitutes permission.
Some of the higher end places (including that one) provide high end branded toiletries that I suspect are given to them for free by the manufacturer. They WANT you to use them because they hope you will like them and purchase the full-sized product. And if you don’t get around to using it while you are there, they WANT you to take it and try it at home. These places sometimes sell the full-sized versions of the product on the hotel website and in the gift shop.
That happened to me once. I spent a week in a hotel and didn’t touch the hotel-provided toiletries because I had brought my own; I had originally planned to stay with a relative but that didn’t work out.
Each day, the housekeeper would add another set of toiletries. By the end of the week, there were six of everything: six bottles of shampoo, six bars of soap, etc. I took a few of these when I left, but not all of them—I didn’t have room in my carry-on bag.
This was the only time I haven’t used the hotel-provided supplies, so I have no idea how typical this is. (It was a decent chain hotel, but definitely not high-end.)
Most places I’ve been to do give you one at least every other day even if you don’t hide the partially used one. About the only places I can think of that don’t are 1) The places that don’t even give you shampoo, just bars of “Cashmere Bouquet” soap ( I didn’t even know the brand still existed) and 2) Places that provide shampoo in the same packaging as ketchup packages. Which are obviously either open and used or not opened- there’s no “well maybe they opened it and used just a little” or " It looks full, but we can’t leave it for the next customer"
I suspect that it may actually cost more in employees' time to not just put a new set in the room , even if there are partially used ones there. Because when the partially used bottle has only enough shampoo for one use, but there are another two or three people using the room someone is going to have to bring up more shampoo/conditioner.
Plus even higher-end toiletries are absurdly cheap - This companies’ 1 oz shampoo/conditioner/lotion/bodywash is about 32 cents. * Bodywash and lotion from their retail store runs about $20 for 12 oz. I assume that this is at least in part due to advertising value - maybe if I like the shampoo at the hotel I’ll decide to try one of their retail lines.
- The packets I mentioned earlier seem to go for about 6 cents each.
The only time I’ve ever taken a hotel Bible was on a class trip to Quebec in high school; it was bilingual English/French and I thought it’d be a nice souvenir for a very religious classmate who couldn’t go on the trip.
I was thinking more of a scenario where the hotel guest would toss each day’s shampoo bottle in a suitcase daily with the knowledge that it will be replaced.
At the end of five days, voila: five little bottles of shampoo.
mmm