Staying in a RI this week and wonder WHY the 'used' soap is taken away everyday by housekeeping and replaced with new, packaged soap. Is there a reason for this? Just seems very wasteful to me as they must throw away a lot of 'used' soap.

The full service Marriott where I am currently staying has not replaced or replenished the soap for my three day stay. It is definitely a property-to-property policy on doing this.

If you find the replaced soap wasteful, simply remove your used bar(s) of soap and wrap in plastic before housekeeping arrives. when they replenish the soap, just keep the new wrapped bars and continue to use your current bar. Take the wrapped bars home and donate to a homeless shelter.

According to the Manager of a RI I frequent, the soap is supposed to be changed only when the embossed pattern disapears. That's a good 3 days or more for me. But sometimes, it gets changed daily and that's simply wasteful.

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that are replaced with new bars!

Since I have a plastic soap case in my Shave kit, there are always some high used bars in it, one of which is a special face soap. I just use those or add a new bar to them, when I leave the room. And add any new amenities to a bag to take home, if they are worth taking. Then add them to a box for charity, when I get home. I also have a friend who uses everything, but bar soap. He prefers the spa gels, which I don't consider strong enough to wash with. That is a big help after a month stay, and the collection gets to large and heavy to lug home!

It must a propoerty-specific thing. My 3 regular hotels over the past few months don't replace the soap, and I wouldn't want them to.

I also take my unused bars and other items and donate them to a local shelter, via a collection box at my home office.

I assume the used bars are just thrown away. There are no good uses for them.

I use a plastic soap dish to hold the soap (something carried over from my military days) and they always leave that alone. If I used the bar of soap, they will leave another one, but usually don't leave an extra one every day. Might be something to think about if, like me, you see no reason to not use the same bar of soap until gone. BTW - I wipe it off and carry it in my shaving kit, I have never had a problem as far as water getting over things.

Just a thought - do the hotels use any type of a cleaning solution for the tubs? If so, maybe when they overspray the soap they throw it away, and some housekeepers would rather not have any question about if the soap had some type of harsh cleanser on it, so they automatically throw it away every day.

soap is biodegradable right? I always wondered that since i do a lot of 1 night stays...

I always bring one of those ziplock bag things with me to put the soap and stuff in. Use them for a couple more days when I get home till they are done. Just don't think it a good idea to just throw them away...

I remember a non hotel cleaning lady said she kept the used bars or remnants in a bucket for washing floors. That may have been when they still washed floors by hand on their knees.

If you leave tips, then you will see just how the soaps and small bottles seem to multiply every day!

A final hint. It is best to let the soap air dry, so that it doesn't 'melt' as fast with use. A ziplock bag would prevent that. High end face cleanser bars used to come in plastic soapcase type containers, and I saved them for use in my travel kit to hold bars too good to leave behind.
I put the slightly used bars into the plastic soap case and put it in the closet with my shave kit uncovered to 'air' or dry out.. Hate mushy soap in the shower. Then the maids can decide, if they want to leave more!
Usually pass on those tiny bars of soap in the lower cost hotels. Too small to handle and not worth the effort to save them except to take to a gym.

I stayed 1 week at the Ritz in Maui and the soap was never replaced! Also, there were 4 places for soap (tub, shower, 2 sinks) and they only supplied 2 bars of soap.

I agree that soap should not be replaced every day, especially when you get decent size bars (like at the Ritz). The Ritz didn't have much worry about what to do with leftover bars of soap!

I just left the JW Marriott in Orlando after a 4 day stay. Soap was never replaced there. New soaps were left on the counter. And, unlike the Ritz, they gave us 5 bars (was it the tip?)

I bring all the goodies home (that will fit in my zip lock bag) and either donate them to a woman's shelter and/or give them to my niece who makes "spa bags". I find Marriott soap so smelly that I have to keep it in a zip lock baggy...

ZakkW

That's my theory too. I leave three bucks for the maid everyday and generally stay a week at a time. I wonder if new soap is their way of "providing extra service." I'm OK with having my toothbrush placed on a little hand towel, but I dislike being given new soap and new towels every day. Seems to happen more and more often these days too.

As to the suggestion to wrap up the soap every day, I dislike the idea of having to put extra effort so that Marriott becomes a better world citizen.

I would think Marriott needs to work on a corporate (at least per country) initiative to help save the environment - things like the changing of soap, towels, sheets as well as the recycling of papers and bottles.

One has some kind of sheet changing policy. Another had some but stopped. I also think the maids think they better change everything to avoid complaints. My solution is NO SERVICE for my stay - not a big deal for a 4 night stay.

The hotels I frequent do not recycle. I actually try to recycle them myself. A one-week trip does pile up a bunch of bottles and newspaper.

The Starwood chain, which I have not stayed at for a while, seems to be more progressive on this front.