Do you use the soaps and hair products at hotels?

[disneysteve]

Ah, Ha! Now I know who has been unplugging the clocks in all the motel rooms.

Now I just need to figure out who is unplugging all the bedside lamps.

(we don't own any cell phone alarm clocks)

I don’t generally unplug the clock though I do sometimes put it on the floor along with the phone. Those two things suck up the end table space which I need for my own things.

98% of Americans have a cell phone. 91% have a smartphone. That puts you in a tiny minority. Understandably hotels, and businesses in general, are going to gear things toward the 98% of customers with phones, not the 2% without

If there is a clock, I always check if the alarm is set to avoid surprises. I forgot to do that recently and sure enough the alarm went off at 6am and woke us.

I have unplugged lamps to free up an outlet though hotels have gotten a lot better about having multiple outlets by the bed so I haven’t needed to do that lately. I’m always careful to replug them before I checkout though.

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

98% of Americans have a cell phone.

So you're saying I'm almost a 1%er?

Cool!

I have also spent entire weeks staying at a motel and never once turned on the TV. But I would usually listen to that bedside radio every evening if I could tune in a good station. That probably makes me a 2%er as well.

 

[disneysteve]

So you're saying I'm almost a 1%er?

Cool!

I have also spent entire weeks staying at a motel and never once turned on the TV. But I would usually listen to that bedside radio every evening if I could tune in a good station. That probably makes me a 2%er as well.

There’s a pretty good chance that had you turned on the tv you might have found that it offered music options as well as tv stations.

 

[disneysteve]

(we don't own any cell phone alarm clocks)

I know you've posted before about not having cell phones. It's just such a foreign concept to me. We got our first cell phones in 1991. I'm 61 so for more than half my life, 35 years, I've had a cell phone. Heck, even my 95-year-old mother has a cell phone and uses it on a daily basis, as she has for probably 30 years (I don't recall exactly when we added her to the plan). I can't imagine functioning today without one.

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

I know you've posted before about not having cell phones. It's just such a foreign concept to me... I can't imagine functioning today without one.

It's very relaxing. More people should try it.

 

[FIYes]

I use the soap and hair products provided at hotels. It is one less thing to pack.

 

[Sconie]

I know you've posted before about not having cell phones. It's just such a foreign concept to me. We got our first cell phones in 1991. I'm 61 so for more than half my life, 35 years, I've had a cell phone. Heck, even my 95-year-old mother has a cell phone and uses it on a daily basis, as she has for probably 30 years (I don't recall exactly when we added her to the plan). I can't imagine functioning today without one.

Thinking back, what really changed my opinion...or at least my 'psychology'.... regarding cell phones was 9-11 (gosh.....2 1/2 decades ago!) and listening to all the folks, both in the towers and on the ill-fated planes, leave messages &/or talk with their loved ones. It convinced me that cell phones were definitely "here to stay." Granted, mobile phones were already becoming cheaper, smaller & more useful, but that event----at least for me----was something of a 'defining moment.'

 

[disneysteve]

Thinking back, what really changed my opinion...or at least my 'psychology'.... regarding cell phones was 9-11 (gosh.....2 1/2 decades ago!) and listening to all the folks, both in the towers and on the ill-fated planes, leave messages &/or talk with their loved ones. It convinced me that cell phones were definitely "here to stay." Granted, mobile phones were already becoming cheaper, smaller & more useful, but that event----at least for me----was something of a 'defining moment.'

I got my first phone when I was a medical resident and started taking call outside of the hospital. The first time I had to pull over in a sketchy neighborhood to use a payphone when my pager went off, I was like, nope, not doing this again. I got a cell phone a few days later.

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

I got my first phone when I was a medical resident and started taking call outside of the hospital. The first time I had to pull over in a sketchy neighborhood to use a payphone when my pager went off, I was like, nope, not doing this again. I got a cell phone a few days later.

To continue the thread hijack...

When I started travelling for my j*b back in 1996, I was issued a pager and had to either find a payphone or a phone at the jobsite to call in when I was paged. Then the company switched to those alphanumeric pagers where we could reply with short messages. After that I had to get a mobile phone, either a flip-phone or a little stick-phone, depending on which carrier bought out the previous carrier.

I kept one of those little phones up until 2007, when I got married and stopped travelling full-time. Once I became a 'shop worker' the company would no longer cover a mobile phone bill, I went straight to the service provider and cancelled my service plan. When they asked me what they could do to keep me as a customer, I told them that they couldn't do anything for me, as I no longer needed a mobile phone.

They looked at me kind of funny that day, and that was in 2007!

 

[More Cowbell]

I appreciate that hotels provide soap, shampoo, conditioner, etc. but I wonder how many guests actually use it vs. bringing their own.
[…]

Where do you stand? Pack your own or just use whatever they provide?

Just returned from a fairly local timeshare staycay as a guest of the long-time owner who inherited the timeshare and hasn’t set foot there since the parents passed over 10 years ago. Yes I used the provided soaps, shampoo, etc. except for a facial cleanser that I packed.

I did not take home any of their little tubes of cream. I used to do that sort of thing ages ago to have a stash to offer guests. However that stuff expires, plus now I realize it’s all just clutter.

 

[big-papa]

I used to but on a trip to EU years ago, I'm fairly certain that a hair product that a hotel provided (via installed bottle in the shower) resulted in some sort of scalp condition that it took me quite a while to get rid of. So I bring my own now.

Cheers