<Joey>
Yeah? Well just think about the last place I wash and the first place you wash!
</Joey>
Seriously, though, it wouldn’t bother me. It’s soap. You’re rubbing it over your skin, not licking it. Skin is pretty germproof.
I don’t even rub it on my skin. I rub the soap onto a washcloth and then rub that on my skin.
The risk of cross-contamination with bar soap appears to be low, though not, apparently, 100%non-existent. See the New York Times link below. I prefer taking the little bar soaps home with me. I remember someone asked Dear Abby or Ann Landers about this, and the answer was hotels happily expect you to take home soap, shampoo, and other small, consumable items. They do not want you to take towels, coffee makers, TV’s, vibrating beds. 
It would bother me to use a bar of soap that was previously used by some stranger. From someone else in my household, not so much. But if I didn’t know who used it before me, by all means, you can have it. And I’m not a germophobe by any means. But the thought of it definitely gets me squicked out. I just don’t think of a bar of soap as something to be considered community property.
I’m with you overall. Germophobia is at ridiculous levels.
However, one of the first things we did in my college microbiology lab was to test wet, used bar soap for bacteria. Every bar produced happy, healthy colonies. (The NY Times article linked to by another poster shows that these are not going to be infectious if used for hand-washing, but those who eat used soap should beware. 
)
There was a thread just like this one a year or two ago, and it also degenerated into a discussion about stealing. Rather than link to it I’ll just summarize the arguments on both sides:
It’s stealing
It is not stealing
Is too
Is not
Is too
Is not
Is the bar soap for bathing? I thought it was just hand soap. I only see shower gel in hotels now.
This reminds me of an interesting story from Snopes Hotel Soap | Snopes.com
Dear Maid,
Please do not leave any more of those little bars of soap in my bathroom since I have brought my own bath-sized Dial. Please remove the six unopened little bars from the shelf under the medicine chest and another three in the shower soap dish. They are in my way.
Thank you,
S. Berman
Dear Room 635,
I am not your regular maid. She will be back tomorrow, Thursday, from her day off. I took the 3 hotel soaps out of the shower soap dish as you requested. The 6 bars on your shelf I took out of your way and put on top of your Kleenex dispenser in case you should change your mind. This leaves only the 3 bars I left today which my instructions from the management is to leave 3 soaps daily.
I hope this is satisfactory.
Kathy, Relief Maid
Dear Maid — I hope you are my regular maid.
Apparently Kathy did not tell you about my note to her concerning the little bars of soap. When I got back to my room this evening I found you had added 3 little Camays to the shelf under my medicine cabinet. I am going to be here in the hotel for two weeks and have brought my own bath-size Dial so I won’t need those 6 little Camays which are on the shelf. They are in my way when shaving, brushing teeth, etc.
Please remove them.
S. Berman
Dear Mr. Berman,
My day off was last Wed. so the relief maid left 3 hotel soaps which we are instructed by the management. I took the 6 soaps which were in your way on the shelf and put them in the soap dish where your Dial was. I put the Dial in the medicine cabinet for your convenience. I didn’t remove the 3 complimentary soaps which are always placed inside the medicine cabinet for all new check-ins and which you did not object to when you checked in last Monday. Please let me know if I can of further assistance.
Your regular maid,
Dotty
Dear Mr. Berman,
The assistant manager, Mr. Kensedder, informed me this A.M. that you called him last evening and said you were unhappy with your maid service. I have assigned a new girl to your room. I hope you will accept my apologies for any past inconvenience. If you have any future complaints please contact me so I can give it my personal attention. Call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM. Thank you.
Elaine Carmen
Housekeeper
Dear Miss Carmen,
It is impossible to contact you by phone since I leave the hotel for business at 745 AM and don’t get back before 530 or 6PM. That’s the reason I called Mr. Kensedder last night. You were already off duty. I only asked Mr. Kensedder if he could do anything about those little bars of soap. The new maid you assigned me must have thought I was a new check-in today, since she left another 3 bars of hotel soap in my medicine cabinet along with her regular delivery of 3 bars on the bath-room shelf. In just 5 days here I have accumulated 24 little bars of soap. Why are you doing this to me?
S. Berman
Dear Mr. Berman,
Your maid, Kathy, has been instructed to stop delivering soap to your room and remove the extra soaps. If I can be of further assistance, please call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM. Thank you,
Elaine Carmen,
Housekeeper
Dear Mr. Kensedder,
My bath-size Dial is missing. Every bar of soap was taken from my room including my own bath-size Dial. I came in late last night and had to call the bellhop to bring me 4 little Cashmere Bouquets.
S. Berman
Dear Mr. Berman,
I have informed our housekeeper, Elaine Carmen, of your soap problem. I cannot understand why there was no soap in your room since our maids are instructed to leave 3 bars of soap each time they service a room. The situation will be rectified immediately. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.
Martin L. Kensedder
Assistant Manager
Dear Mrs. Carmen,
Who the hell left 54 little bars of Camay in my room? I came in last night and found 54 little bars of soap. I don’t want 54 little bars of Camay. I want my one damn bar of bath-size Dial. Do you realize I have 54 bars of soap in here. All I want is my bath size Dial. Please give me back my bath-size Dial.
S. Berman
Dear Mr. Berman,
You complained of too much soap in your room so I had them removed. Then you complained to Mr. Kensedder that all your soap was missing so I personally returned them. The 24 Camays which had been taken and the 3 Camays you are supposed to receive daily (sic). I don’t know anything about the 4 Cashmere Bouquets. Obviously your maid, Kathy, did not know I had returned your soaps so she also brought 24 Camays plus the 3 daily Camays. I don’t know where you got the idea this hotel issues bath-size Dial. I was able to locate some bath-size Ivory which I left in your room.
Elaine Carmen
Housekeeper
Dear Mrs. Carmen,
Just a short note to bring you up-to-date on my latest soap inventory. As of today I possess:
* On shelf under medicine cabinet - 18 Camay in 4 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
* On Kleenex dispenser - 11 Camay in 2 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 3.
* On bedroom dresser - 1 stack of 3 Cashmere Bouquet, 1 stack of 4 hotel-size Ivory, and 8 Camay in 2 stacks of 4.
* Inside medicine cabinet - 14 Camay in 3 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
* In shower soap dish - 6 Camay, very moist.
* On northeast corner of tub - 1 Cashmere Bouquet, slightly used.
* On northwest corner of tub - 6 Camays in 2 stacks of 3.
Please ask Kathy when she services my room to make sure the stacks are neatly piled and dusted. Also, please advise her that stacks of more than 4 have a tendency to tip. May I suggest that my bedroom window sill is not in use and will make an excellent spot for future soap deliveries. One more item, I have purchased another bar of bath-sized Dial which I am keeping in the hotel vault in order to avoid further misunderstandings.
S. Berman
Used to scrub a person, then tested directly? Sure. But washing the bar under running water would dissolve enough of the surface that the newly exposed layer would be as clean as a newly wetted fresh bar.
I try to keep my immune system in good working order by doing at least one disgusting thing per day.
A friend of mine works as an accountant at a hotel. He says these little bars of soap are so cheap that they simply don’t care if guests take them home. IIRC a crate of 2000 bars of soap costs 20-30 euros.
He said their biggest problem is people stealing light bulbs from the rooms (not joking).
?? Where is the hotel he works at? I’ve heard of people stealing light bulbs in the trams after the war, because nobody had any, and they were rare, but today? I can’t imagine who would think of that, esp. as lightbulbs are breakable and thus difficult to transport. I’ve always heard of guests stealing bath robes and slippers…
Oh, thanks for that early morning laugh !
I haven’t read that before, but as I was reading it, I imagined it delivered by Bob Newhart as one of his one-sided phone call monologues.
I’m reminded of a thing I read in Boys Life a decade or two back: You can take bits and pieces of soap, heat it up in a sauce pan (low heat, one assumes, as I’m not sure how hot soap gets before it bursts into flames), and then pour it into a mold to make a new, bigger bar of soap. Mostly just something to do with the little shiv pieces of soap you always end up with after a few months.
Dunno what that does in regards to the scent or texture or whatever, like if you melted a bunch of Dove bars together, will they still be soft or will they end up like the rock-hard Exchange Select bars of soap they sell on military bases that you can use both for personal hygiene and for fighting off bears in the woods.
When I think of it, I’ll grab a bar of soap from the hotel while I’m staying there (I assuage my burning guilt by not making a huge mess of the place while I’m there), but usually I’ll unwrap it, use it for a shower or two, and not think about it again when I leave.
If you are concerned about wasting soap, you can always bring your own or drop the used soap in a ziplock bag to take home.
When CFLs were a new thing and expensive, people would steal the bulbs to replace their incandescent ones at home. I’m sure it still happens.
Some people will take anything they can.
With all due respect, I disagree as others have. You pay for a room. Any free amenities ( opposed to, say, a for-pay amenity within your room such as a Mini-Bar stocked with chocolates and liquor ) is a part of what you are billed for on a daily basis. I could carefully remove all expendables from my room every day and Housekeeping is obliged to replace all of it. Notepad, pen, Kleenex box- if it is on a bedside and not kept within a metal housing in the bathroom-, soaps, shampoo/conditioner, hair net, shoe cloth, and so on.
I must say, I am on the far other end of this. I use hotel soaps and shampoos, I do not travel my own. I DO take some if they are great and work well in my dainty hair. I also carefully open up soap from one end to re-use the slip and will take soap into my DOPP kit for future use. I detest having my bed re-made and having fresh towels daily. It’s a horrific abuse of the environment and when I travel I don’t have the room re-made daily.
If I’m really jonesing a particular shampoo, I will ask the Housekeeping person in the hallway if I may take another from their cart. I’m not stealing- and in fact in a 7-night stay where I don’t get new shampoo every day, I’m saving them money.
Cartooniverse, frequent traveler.
[quote=“AaronX, post:27, topic:573831”]
This reminds me of an interesting story from Snopes Hotel Soap | Snopes.com
Hysterical, thanks. It reminds me of this classic complaint letter to Virgin.
I mentioned this before in a previous thread:
Back in the early 80s when I was cooking in the Best Western Inn, we used to throw leftover soaps in a number ten can with holes punched in the bottom. We used the can to soap up the water in the pot sink. We did this for years and thought nothing of it, until we hired a new dishwasher one day. She was totally grossed out and refused to use it. We thought she was overreacting until she pointed out a few pubies in the can. Ew. (We promptly switched to dishwashing liquid).
Yeah, but they’re clean pubes.
Some of the places I have stayed more recently, Best Western, Sheraton, similar ask to help the environment by reusing towels on multiple night stays. They say hang it up if you want to reuse it and throw it on the floor if you want clean. At home, towels go a week maybe, so I see no problem with 2 days.
Usually we take all the soap, and little else. Partly we have reached the age of clutter. We have more pens, pads, etc. than we will use up in our lifetime.
Oh, since ice is free, we indulge our dog by filling its water dish with ice.
The Venetian in 'Vegas uses really great soap (or at least did last time I was there). I called housekeeping and asked if I could have some extras to take home since I loved it so much.
They sent up 20 bars.