Out of the Closet/Bathroom/Bedroom and Into My Luggage or I No Longer Need Be a Closet Hotel Toiletries Thief
Ah toiletries, sweet, sweet, toiletries...
Hello, my name is Emma, and I’m a Hotel Toiletries Thief. This is how I would have introduced myself had there ever existed a Hotel Toiletries Thief Group. You see, I am That Girl. When I check into my hotel and get to my room, I bee-line straight for the bathroom. Why? Because I want to see what’s there! To me, it’s like Christmas. I go in there and if the products are really good, my eyes light up, a broad smile comes to my face and then… and then I hoard. Having just completed a 3 week vacation in Japan and Singapore, I am still on a toiletries high. At the Park Hyatt in Tokyo they had Aesop Toiletries. At the Shangri-La, it was L’Occitane to include full sized bath soaps! I like to justify my habit by saying that I like to ride my bike to work so those lighter toiletries are fantastic. And why am I now gleefully confessing my obsession? Click on the jump to find out…
WELL Travel and Leisure Magazine has just posted a new article titled, “Stealing Hotel Amenities: Right or Wrong?” It turns out that I am RIGHT! RIGHT! RIGHT! for taking those amenities (although, it didn’t say anything about when they’re taken twice a day… I like to think that’s included) This last trip, I admit, was bad. In fact, at the end of the Japan portion of our trip we shipped souvenirs home. Souvenirs which included, you guessed it, my amassed quantity of toiletries. I’ve actually even become somewhat of a toiletries snob. I’ve started to become particular about which toiletries I’ll quietly pocket. With all of the luggage/carry-on restrictions, one has to be is my reasoning. On short trips, I try to only pack carry-on which means that I have to be able to pack them into those little quart bags. If it’s just any old brand, well, it gets left behind. My biggest heartbreak has been having to leave the toiletries behind at the Hotel du Vin chains throughout the UK. They provide guests with 4 oz take home bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotion… AND, tell guests to take them home. Fabulous, but, alas too big for my carry-on. After having read the Travel and Leisure article, I felt a great guilty weight lift from my shoulders. And although my husband always looks at me and my thievery and tells me it’s one of the reasons he loves me, now, he can say it openly… vice after we’re on the plane flying away from the country and into international airspace…
“Stealing Hotel Amenities – Right or Wrong?” I can’t believe that was even up for discussion – of COURSE it’s right! I mean, as long as we’re talking little soaps and bottles of shampoo etc (and not linens and bathrobes) I think that for $450 a night you have every right to swipe a teeny bottle of shampoo or six. And it’s not like they’re going to reuse the soap. In fact I find it hard to believe that they do anything with those half-used bottles of lotion, etc. – they just toss ‘em. I really doubt that they get refilled. (There’s an opportunity here for some eco-activism, but i’ll leave that to someone else.) So why not take them?