subject: Should guests take hotel toiletries home with them? [print this page] Should guests take hotel toiletries home with them?
Hotel toiletries are to be expected by guests staying in hotels of all star ratings and sizes around the world. Indeed, the experience of staying in a hotel would not be complete without using hotel toiletries.
However, when the guest is packing their bag to check out of their room, is it right that they should take the hotel toiletries with them?
In an article for London Free Press this very issue is tackled. The writer regards this as an ethical question which requires a serious answer as unlike vending machine supplies in some hotel bathrooms, these toiletries are provided at no extra cost. Does this mean they are free to take home too?
Jeffrey Seglin began to ponder over this issue after receiving a letter from a lady from Ohio who asked if it was alright to take the toiletries home if they were going to be donated to a homeless charity?
As she explains in the letter, the lady was asking would it be more ethnical to take them home to donate or to leave them for the next guests to use? She writes: "If the hotel would use them for the next guests in the room, then liberating them for the homeless seems something akin to stealing."
In the article, Seglin comes to the conclusion that as the toiletries are fundamentally placed in the room for guests to use, it will be fine to take whatever is not used home with them. However, he does point out that it would be wrong to pack something like a bathrobe or towels.
As some hotels donate unused or discarded soaps and toiletries to charitable organisations, it may also be worthwhile asking at reception if guests are able to donate what they do not use throughout their stay.
