List of hotels/other providers offering free toiletries

I thought a separate list showing what hotels and others are providing will help us with our trip planning...

Omni Hotels: Facial Skin Care Products, Women’s Cosmetics, Hair Care Products, Sunscreen, Toothpaste, Contact Lens Solution, Nail Polish and Remover (from what I've read these are a mixture of Kiehl's, Sephora and Clinique samples)

Wyndham Hotels: Toothpaste, contact lens solution, hair gel, hairspray, bottled water

Starwood hotels: hair care products (no detail provided), contact lens solution

Avis: Full size Crest toothpaste, mouthwash and floss to be provided on the passenger seat of cars in 25 major airports

Please add to the list as you see announcements or if you experience any
"extras" being provided as you travel!

Hyatt always provides personal care items in the event you forget something. I don't know if they're stepping up the program now though.

Hampton Inn will also give you some personal care items like toothpaste, toothbrush, floss... I think they also will give a razor and shaving cream but I am not 100% sure

Hotels stock up on guest toiletries
Posted 8/14/2006 11:21 PM ET
By Kitty Bean Yancey, USA TODAY

The roll-aboard crowd is the bread and butter of the hotel industry. Hotels are reporting a surge in demand for toothpaste, mouthwash and the like and are responding to frequent fliers' new needs:

• Omni and Starwood hotels have started offering free hair-care products and contact lens solution. Omni's list includes nail polish and remover.

• Wyndham is adding lens solution, hair gel and hairspray to on-request free amenities such as toothpaste that they have long offered. And bottled water is being handed out.

• Marriotts, like many chain hotels, already offer some free toiletries on request. Courtyard New York JFK Airport just started offering complimentary contact lens solution, deodorant and more, but the program is not chainwide.

"We're seeing how the (new restrictions) play out," Marriott spokesman John Wolf says. "It's too soon to say."

• Sterling Inn in Sterling Heights, Mich., is letting repeat guests store their own toiletries. That's a service that luxury hotels such as Four Seasons already offer frequent guests.

• On Friday, Choice Hotels, with brands that include Comfort Inn, Quality Inn and Clarion, sent a message to its 4,000-plus U.S. properties encouraging them to make available free basics, including facial skin-care products, cosmetics, hair products, sunscreen, nail polish and remover, plus bottled water.

Such programs are welcome news to road warriors.

"I love this idea," says Joe Tomasone, a wireless-network security engineer in Tampa. "If hotels were to start carrying trial-sized toiletries as a matter of course, I think it would be not only a great service to the traveler, but a savvy business move."

Meanwhile, some lodgings are getting downright creative.

The Exchange Hotel in New York City announced that it would provide a $25 gift card for the Duane Reade drugstore chain for travelers or would FedEx their carry-on bag home at no extra charge.

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My first-hand experience:

Marriott Vacation Clubs offers a "Vacation Starter Pack" to arriving owners. While I understand the contents rotate, the box I received this week included the following:
2 oz. Vaseline Healthy Body Glow (moisturizer/self-tanner)
.98 oz. Loreal's Men's Comfort Max Anti-Irritation Balm with sunscreen
.7 oz. Mitchum (unscented)
2 samples, each with 2 packets, of Colgate Luminous (could probably last 4 - 8 total uses)
2 samples of .35 fl. oz. Softsoap Pure Cashmere body wash (2 - 4 uses total)
1 packet of liquid Tide with Febreze (for 1 load of laundry)
.2 fl. oz. Dove Smoothing Frizz Control
.3 oz. Dove Define and Shine Control Gel
4 pieces of Trident Tropical Fruit
1 Nature Valley Granola Bar: Sweet and Salty Peanut
2 single-use packs of Maxwell House coffee (regular and decaf)
Sugar, fake sweetener, and creamer packets

It was a tightly packed box! Lots of genuinely useable goodies!

Additional toiletries and groceries were available on the on-site MarketPlace so you could replace just about anything you might have forgotten or had confiscated... but they didn't have saline solution (the one item I needed after my bottle leaked in-flight!).

Homewood Suites (Hilton) has always had a nice group of products available for free and in their little shop in the lobby (always open). They are adding in both catagories. They have, in most locations, a shopping service for groceries and other items. In order to obtain what you really want (some of the shoppers are men), a photocopy of the container of the product would be a very handy thing to provide.

Local managers are trying to improve their ability to meet travelers' needs. If you telephone ahead, they will tell you what they have on hand.

Marriott is situational. I telephoned one south of Denver (Denver Tech Center) and got a very vague reply. I'll telephone again before I fly.

^ ^
Awesome! I hope they get lots of business for this.

I'm at a Marriott Resort today. I came with carry on baggage, and asked at the front desk if they have made provisions for their guests in the new TSA reg era. He said they have done nothing additional beyond the amenities that housekeeping has always carried. I would like to have been handed a card stating what was available on calling housekeeping, and am leaving that feedback on departure.

I, for one, don't like having to call 'housekeeping' to ask for products. A possible long wait. Another tip!

I prefer to have the items available for my selection at check-in so that I can go to my room and have some peace and quiet.

There is no guaranty that 'housekeeping' will have enough for everyone who asks.

FYI, Doubletree Suites, Indianapolis/Carmel had sunscreen moisturizer in room along with regular stuff. Almost anything else you need is at the desk

It would be great if Marriott could add individual toiletries to tick off on your profile (like the current setting for a fridge, etc.).

What about any of the Holiday Inn chains, particularly Holiday Inn Express?

Does anyone have a list of the cities where Avis is providing the packages?

The best idea is to telephone ahead to where you are staying, renting a car etc and ask about what they are doing at the time of your arrival. Things are changing quickly.

Hyatt has listed the products available at its hotels on its website.

Complimentary items for Hyatt guests available on request include:

* Razors and shaving cream
* Toothbrushes, toothpaste and dental floss
* Soap and bath gel
* Shampoo and conditioner
* Lotion
* Deodorant
* Cotton balls and cotton swabs
* Combs
* Talcum powder
* Feminine sanitary products
* Woolite® Fabric Wash
* Emory boards

After (stupidly) leaving my entire toiletries bag in my bathroom at home last week, I discovered that the Hampton Inn I was staying at did indeed have deodorant, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and it looked like they had several other items that I didn' need. They had both a women's brand and a man's brand of deodorant.

But they didn't have a contact case. My lenses spent the night in a plastic glass filled with Poland Springs water.

I got the Avis toothpaste/mouthwash/floss package when picking up a car in Oakland.