Do your guests a favor- skip the hotel soaps (cheap crap, almost without exception) and pick up some new travel sized bar or liquid soaps from the travel aisle at the drugstore. No pubes to pick out, everyone is happy win/win. And your guest doesn’t have to use off brand Schmivory soap or whatever that crap is. Gah.
Am I stealing if I take the newspaper left in front of my door, or the mint on my pillow? Here is one hotel that lists the newspaper and toiletries as complimentary.
Regarding signs: If hotels care enough to have multiple signs explaining that you’ll help save the environment if the maid doesn’t change your sheets and towels every day–signs that are quite obvious and in pretty much every hotel I’ve stayed in over the past 3+ years–then you’d think that if they really cared about consumable toiletries they’d have a sign saying “Please Leave Unused Toiletries” or something equally obvious. But they don’t. Or maybe they wouldn’t leave you new stuff when the other stuff is quite obviously sitting half-used in the shower or by the sink. But they do.
Well, I pick 'em off the soap, but I like to feel that I put a lot of myself into my cooking, if you know what I mean.
And I think you do.
Floss?
I haven’t heard the “but but but it’s free advertising for the hotel” angle yet.
I wonder if there’s a class where you can learn how to make little rosettes out of pubes for guest soaps.
Someone with poor English skills might interpret that as, “please leave the toilet unused”.
True fact
In the fancy hotels of Japan they make fancy decorative bonzai trees out of that and tooth picks.
Believe it or not.
But as I keep saying, the hotel DOESN’T really care if you carry off the unused complimentary toiletries. That doesn’t change the fact that the complimentary toiletries are provided for your use in the hotel, and they can be reused for another guest if you don’t carry them off.
And the fact that they can reuse them doesn’t change the fact that you haven’t committed theft if you take them.
The toiletries universally have the name of the hotel on them, are reusable, and are thus advertising items, like matchbooks back when people smoked in hotel rooms and restaurants.
I’ve never seen a sign saying to leave the toiletries - I suspect the toiletries at such a place would be such I wouldn’t want anyway. I have seen the common sign about reusing towels, always hang mine up, and always get fresh ones anyway. (Unless hotel maids have a magic towel pressing and drying machine.)
I’m allergic to perfume soap, so bring my Ivory from home, and so they’re ahead of the game for me.
I’m late to this thread, but since I have relevant info, I’m posting as soon as I read the initial question. Sorry if I’m just repeating what someone else said.
My best friend owns a motel. Any opened bottles are tossed by law (NY law, other places may be different), and fresh put in. If you use it, take it home. They expect it, and it saves them some work cleaning up after you. If you are staying for several nights, leave the first one out, and if they leave it for your second night, use it. If they toss it and give you fresh, then every night you stay there, put the used one in your luggage, and use the new one. That way it won’t go to waste. They may think you’re a cheapskate, but so what. At least it won’t go to waste when they toss your used one and give you a new one. I used to work in a field that required me to live in motels most of the summer. That’s what I always did. Meeting my friend merely confirmed my assumption of how it worked.
And after reading the entire thread, I am apparently the ONLY one who understood the OP’s original and only question. It’s not a matter of theft, legal or moral. It’s not about if the hotel/motel expects you to take it, used or unused. It’s about “should I steal it?” In other words, not about morality, practical or otherwise, but what is BEST to do from a PRACTICAL standpoint. After reading the whole thread, it looks like I’m the only one who actually tried to answer that question, instead of arguing about things utterly irrelevant to it.
Ok, the OP is finally back! Whew, what a day. I had no idea my thread would generate such buzz and angst in General Questions.
Cheshire, I do go along with you comment most of the time. I am frequently irritated at people’s non-applicable anecdotes and personal opinions in GQ, but I think my question was sufficiently answered in the first 10 or 20 replies. Apparently they DO throw them away if they are seen as “used,” so I should take them. Apparently they leave them there for the next guest if they are unused, so I should not take them (despite what anyone else here thinks).
Frankly, I am surprised this has not been moved to IMHO.
Yeah, as I said, that’s what I always do, and for the same reasons you originally asked.
If you take too many, and they are complimentary, drop them off at the local food pantry rather then throw them away. A lot of the poor and homeless use them and they are easy to carry. My Mom gets tons at the Casino and she does this.