I too had those "test tubes," at the Heathrow Hilton in December. I found them totally impractical in the shower for UK Stages' reasons: there's no place to put them. Their showers don't even have a soap dish higher than the one for use in the tub; if you try to put two (soap and shampoo) in it one always falls out; and since they don't stand up, you have to put the cap back on each time you take a dollop out.

I used over half the soap in one shower, mostly due to spillage. I often take two showers a day (one in the morning, one after working out). Two people often share room, so a total of four showers a day isn't a stretch.

I mentioned this on the hotel comment form. I got a personal letter back, explaining that these things were a directive from above, that all comments would be taken into account in evaluating them, and that meanwhile there's a cake of soap in the desk drawer (an odd place for it, especially since there's nothing to tell you it's there). Maybe that's why UK Stages noticed soap on the carts. And maybe they've moved it out of the desk drawer since then.

(I am not against liquid soap, I use it often from wall-mounted dispensers, but in this case I think Hilton management put trendy fashion ahead of what real people need. If anyone from Hilton is reading this: your bread-and-butter frequent visitors don't come back, time and again, for trendiness.)