Just got to wondering about all that stuff they put into hotel room bathrooms. From time to time, it seems this becomes one of the battle grounds for one-upsmanship among chains. The higher category room, the more little bottles and jars. The more stars, the higher the quality of their contents. At the Conrad in Singapore I found a Teddy Bear. In Hong Kong, it was a plastic duck. [In addition to the usual emuliants and eblutions.)

While I don't obsess about such things, my curiosity was peaked by a recent stay at the Hilton Park in Munich. I had a very nice Business Floor room and while the bathroom lacked hand/body lotion [a very nice variety of which Sheratons in Germany have adopted] and a few other little things [cotton swabs, mouth wash), it did have the most unusual containers for the liquid soap, shampoo/conditioner and bath/shower gel that was provided.

There was a small plexiglass rack into which were inserted what appeared to be three test tubes. Each of these clear plastic tubes contained one of the afore mentioned liquids. I found this a very attractive form of packaging/design. Needless to say, I did take the remaining two-thirds contents of each of the three tubes home with me, but resisted filching the plexiglass holder. (The contents were based on an herbal formula of essential oils, or so the label read.

We've discussed the merits of W's Aveda lotions in the Starwood forum, but I was just curious about what others consider to be interesting discoveries on their travels.