Loot from Hotels: Leftover Toiletries

It has been over a month now since I bravely quit work and shifted to a life of a stay-at-home mom. Do I miss work? Yes, a bit, because my day consists of the same routine and my constant company are the yayas! This week, I have gladly taken up the role I am most good at. If there’s Mr. Clean, I’d like to think I am his counterpart. Yikes, corny! Bear with me.

This morning, my mission was to clean my bathroom cabinets, organize toiletries, and dispose expired cosmetics and lotions. As I was hard at the job, these small bottles gave me an idea for another post! Yey! I need to write to get my brain and fingers working lest they become rusty!

I had fun lining up and taking photos of these bottles as they diverted my mind from the serious job of cleaning.

These are bottles of shampoo, bath gel, lotion, and conditioner from some hotels that I have stayed at. When I go on long trips, I normally bring my own trusted toiletries just to be sure, so I would have unused hotel toiletries after. I would take home the leftovers as they are very handy to bring when me and my family go out of town and stay at less pricey hotels without these nice amenities. They are also so useful to my kids for bringing to school as part of their grooming kits, and to swimming lessons/trips. 

I will tell you a bit of the trips I made as I present photos of my loot of toiletries from different hotels here and outside the Philippines. I will also add links to the hotels in case you are interested to check them out. 

I am guilty of requesting extra toiletries from 5-star hotels. Well, I just want to maximize my money's worth, and also because their toiletries are top quality like these L’Occitane samplers from Sofitel Hotel Manila.

These ones below were from Hotel Borobudur in Jakarta. I arranged bookings for a big group of workshop participants, and stayed there myself for five nights so I thought I deserved some extras to take home. Housekeeping would happily provide an extra set upon the guest’s request.

Together with my family, I spent a night at Edsa Shangri-La last May. Since we were four in the room and we had to pay extra for Garrett (kids over 7 pay extra), I had good reason to request additional shampoo and bath gel. 

This lotion was from the Landmark Hotel in Bangkok where I stayed in 2010. I know this must be expired already! It was at this hotel that I got the most exquisite massage – the genuine Thai massage – which cost me only around the equivalent of P1,000, at the privacy of my own room. It was superb, and really loosened the stiffness in my shoulders and back. I intend to return some day just for that!

It was only in 2009 that I started going on trips outside the country. It was my fortune to have Singapore as my first overseas destination to seek medical treatment. Since then, I have made six trips to this country, which is a mere dot on the world map but which attracts tourists the word over. My first set of free toiletries came from Mount Elizabeth Hospital - Parkway Health.




I had tried different hotels from 2-star to 5-star-rated ones in Singapore. Two-star hotels are no good, I would not even want to use their shampoo. Three-star hotels like Ibis and Fort Canning Lodge are clean and provide decent toiletries.

I also got to stay at Elizabeth Hotel and Carlton Hotel in Singapore, both are 4-5 star hotels. My stay in both was worth the price I paid. Elizabeth Hotel is in the Orchard area while Carlton Hotel is at the corner of Bras Basah Road and Victoria Street, and a few steps away from the Bras Basah MRT station. Both hotels provide decent buffet breakfast.

Locally, my family have stayed a number of times at Malarayat Golf and Country Club Hotel in Lipa, Batangas. The last time we were there coincided with Father’s Day. We got a good deal via Agoda booking for only P1,834 net of taxes and charges. The club’s got nice, large kiddie and adult pools. The vast tracts of green and cool weather are so worth the hotel price and the 2-hour trip via SLEX and Star Tollway.  

Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay has also been my family's favorite destination when we want a quick bonding time away from home.

Here are more photos of my loot from other hotels.

From Holiday Inn Galleria:

From Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Conference Center:

From Hotel H20:

From Discovery Suites:

I love staying at hotels, the nice ones of course with at least a 3-star rating. It goes to say that I love to travel. Until my next post then. Hopefully, a more informative one.