One of my favorite writers, David Sedaris, has this funny line in his book Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls about the mini hotel toiletries he likes to give fans that he meets at his book signings, to show them how much he appreciates that they’ve taken the time to – as he says – hear a middle-aged man read out loud:

“Say it’s someone’s birthday or anniversary: I always offer the shampoos and conditioners taken from my hotels.”

Sedaris is saying this a bit tongue in cheek, but he’s also being sincere as it’s truly something he does. There was a time in my life when I would’ve been thrilled to receive such a gift. Not just because it was from THE David Sedaris. But because I kinda sorta hada hoarding problem with mini hotel toiletries.

 

Not to get too self-analytical, but I think this problem stemmed from my childhood.

 

My father traveled a lot for business when I was young. And some of my strongest memories from those early years are my dad unzipping his suitcase after a long trip away and gifting me with freebies from the hotel. Bath products, emery boards, hotel stationary, and maybe – if it were a really fancy schmancy place – a toothbrush with a tiny tube of paste. To see these treasures emerge from beneath his rumpled button-down shirts was like unpacking a magician’s bag of tricks.

 

There’s also something just so darn cuuuuuute about small versions of things, isn’t there?

 

Babies, teacup poodles, street tacos. And so, it seems, I have always associated these mini hotel toiletries with happiness and love.

Being an avid traveler who prioritizes spending money on experiences rather than material goods, I’ve had many chances throughout the years to stay in a wide variety of places. And for better or for worse, one of the ways in which a hotel can try to wow you with their customer service is the quality and the quantity of the mini hotel toiletries they leave you in the room.

Let me just say up front that I won’t go so far as to take them off a cart in the hallway like I’ve seen some people do. The staff will gladly give you more if you ask nicely.

I’ll never forget a few years ago during a week-long stay at Disney’s BoardWalk Villas, the housekeeping staff caught on to the fact that I was quietly packing the products up each morning before we left for a day in the parks in the hopes that they’d leave a fresh set during their cleaning. On about day 4 or 5 we returned to find a literal pyramid of shampoos and conditioners stacked by the bathroom sink. It was embarrassing and delightful at the same time. Of course I took it all with me.

That toiletry haul lasted for months back home.

 

Each time I’d pull out another bottle from the house of mouse, I’d get a little flashback to our trip: the fun we had together as a family, and the feeling of being on vacation without needing to do the dishes, laundry, or cooking. Ah, heaven.  I’d also put these products out in the guest bathroom whenever we had a house guest, as if to say,

“You are so special to me, I am giving you this not-for-individual-sale mini bottle of shampoo out of the kindness of my heart. Please enjoy your stay here.”

 

It wasn’t just Disney products that I hoarded either.

 

My stash included organic lotions from a hotel in San Francisco, imported Ferragamo soap provided by a B&B in wine country, and celebrity dermatologist-branded shampoos from someplace I can’t even remember where, just to name a few.

The way I rationalized it was, the hotel is providing me with these products during my stay, and they replace them every day, so I may as well take them home with me. It got to the point where I had two large wicker baskets in my closet full of tiny, adorable, mini hotel toiletries. I’m embarrassed to admit it now, but I once went over a year without having to buy myself any shampoo!

 

So here’s the problem with all those mini hotel toiletries.

 

Yes, they’re obviously terrible for the environment. All those small containers that may or may not end up getting recycled depending on which city during your sojourn that you’re throwing them out in. They’re a huge waste of packaging, and also of product since some guests don’t finish or even use them and they end up getting thrown out.

 

In fact, there’s a movement within the hotel industry to eliminate the financial and environmental waste caused by these products.

Hilton Hotels has on the forefront of this movement with the industry’s largest soap recycling program. As of 2016, according to this Clean The World article, they had already collected over a million pounds of partially-used soap left behind by visitors, and upcycled them into 4 million pounds of new bars plus kept over 570 tons of waste out of landfills. Their partnership with Clean The World also helps to educate people on the importance of handwashing and hygiene, and also donates discarded amenity bottles to homeless shelters, medical facilities, and impoverished communities around the world.

Marriott has announced that they’re replacing all the mini hotel toiletries in their chain of hotels with a wall-mounted product dispenser. According to their press release:

“For a 140-room property, moving to a three-bottle shower dispenser system is expected to result in the elimination of more than 23,000 tiny toiletry bottles annually – the equivalent of 250 pounds of plastic per year.”

Multiply that by the number of Marriott hotels across the globe, and that’s a huge amount of plastic waste they’ve just diverted from our landfills.

And this Conde Nast article notes that InterContinental Hotel Group – which owns Holiday Inn and several other hotel chains – followed suit and announced that they’ll be doing the same in all 5,600 locations across the globe by 2021. Also, as of August 2019 San Francisco Airport has banned the sale of plastic water bottles in their terminals, perhaps in a bid to compete with Amsterdam’s Schiphol for most eco-friendly airport in the world?

 

But I had a more personal motivation to stop hoarding mini hotel shampoos and conditioners and lotions.

 

They were terrible for my hair and skin. What I discovered, after over a year of using free shampoo from various hotels, is that there’s a reason why your local beauty store has several rows full of various hair and skin care products. There are all different types of hair and skin which require different types of products. And while a hotel shampoo may work great for a week or two while you’re staying there, it’s not necessarily formulated for long-term use.

What it comes down to is: you get what you pay for. While hotels provide these products for your convenience, and they are helpful to have for the times when you run out or forgot to pack your own, they usually aren’t worth filling your suitcase with.

 

Now a reformed freebie hoarder, I allow myself to take home any product that I’ve used during my hotel stay but that’s it.

 

They would end up being thrown out anyway, and this way I can at least make sure the entire product doesn’t go to waste, and that the bottles get properly recycled. I have also been known to wrap up the soap to bring home (pat dry with a towel if wet and wrap in a tissue for transport).

 

If you’ve already got a little collection of hotel toiletries going on at home, don’t feel guilty.

 

Here’s some other ways to reduce your environmental impact:

For products that I can’t leave home without and know won’t be provided at a hotel, like facial cleanser or sunscreen, instead of buying travel size versions, I repurpose old mini hotel bottles. Just wash out when empty and refill with your favorite products.

Alternatively, you can donate unopened items to a local homeless shelter which can always use those kinds of supplies.

Use shampoo and conditioner bars instead of the bottled stuff! Here are the ones I use and love. (FYI, these are Amazon Affiliate links, which cost you nothing to click on but may earn me a small commission. Please see my Disclaimers page for more info.)

 

So, though my inner child may be yearning to ask housekeeping for extras to take home, I will no longer be hoarding these mini hotel toiletries. That is, until I’m doing a book tour and need a nice little gift to hand out to friendly strangers. 

By the way, in the course of writing this post I discovered that David Sedaris has a new book called Calypso which you can purchase here. No, he’s not paying me to say this. I’m just spreading the word because he is hilarious. But who knows, maybe if I help him sell enough books, he’ll send me a mini bottle of conditioner….

• Disney
• Marriott