When you check into a hotel, there are plenty of small things you can take with you, such as:

  • All toiletries and disposable items (including shampoo, shower gel, body lotion, shower cap, bath salts, conditioner, soap, razor, comb, disposable toothbrush, slippers, tissues, laundry bags, gift bags, etc.)
  • Office supplies: all pens, staplers, rulers, erasers, envelopes, and draft paper
  • Drinks other than minibar items, such as regular bottled water
  • The Bible on the bedside table
  • Tea bags, coffee capsules, sugar packets, creamer packets, and so on that are not specifically priced
  • All welcome gifts

And if you feel you don’t have enough, you can always ask customer service for more or ask housekeeping.

Among hotel amenities, the small packaging is easy to carry, and many are from premium brands. They may not be ideal for your long-term use, but taking the leftovers home is a great way to use them, whether for yourself or for guests at home. KUKU travels alone most of the time; over the years, I’ve ended up with a few bags just from collected amenities. In luxury hotels, if you don’t take these items, they may be thrown away directly by the hotel, which is a real waste. It is not good for the environment either. For example, after Shanghai implemented waste sorting, hotels are no longer allowed to place disposable toiletries such as toothbrushes, razors, and combs in guest rooms; you now need to ask at the front desk for each item.

Since the second half of 2019, major hotels have used the opportunity to say they are replacing single-use mini amenities with larger bulk-size amenities for environmental reasons (for many, this is likely more about cost control than environmental impact). This is expected to roll out across more hotel groups soon, and the era of casually taking leftover mini amenities with you is likely heading to an end.

The clearest example of large-format amenities is IHG’s Holiday Inn Express (a budget hotel brand). The main feature of these bulk amenities, besides their size, is that they are generally "locked in," so you can’t carry them away.

In addition, many guests may have hygiene concerns. Even though these are "locked," if someone really wants to, there is still a way to open them—and there is always concern that the previous guest may have added something inside. The larger the amenity package, the greater the chance that a bad actor could remove it all at once.

From an environmental perspective, the author supports the hotels’ move, but hopes hygiene and quality control can improve as well. Anyway, we’ll have to see how it works out in practice.