Kim brings us today’s JusJoJan prompt, amenities.
I stayed in a lot of Marriott hotels when I was traveling, including Courtyards and Residence Inns. All the rooms had a bed, a dresser, a loveseat, a coffee table, a bathroom, a desk and chair, a nightstand (sometimes two), a phone (sometimes two), a coffeepot with pouches of regular and decaf coffee, coffee mugs, glasses, an ice bucket (for the ice machine down the hall), an iron and ironing board, towels, soap, shampoo, conditioner, hand lotion, an extra roll of toilet paper, tissues, bed linens, pillows, pads of paper and pens, a TV, a clock radio (screwed to one of the nightstands), phone books, copies of the Bible, the Book Of Mormon (the Marriotts are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), and a biography of J. Willard Marriott tucked away in one of the drawers, and a padded folder containing stationery, a directory of Marriott Hotels worldwide, a copy of the room service menu, and a listing of all the services the hotel provides. Many of them had a "business center" (a PC with a printer), an exercise room, and a pool. Every floor had a Coke machine and an ice machine, and off the lobby there might be snack machines, or there might be a "gift shop" that sold magazines, candy, shave cream, razors, toothpaste, toothbrushes, aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, pantyhose etc. They gave you a copy of USA Today every morning (supposedly, they charged you a quarter for the newspaper, and you could opt out and save the quarter, but no one ever did that). You might get a subset of the forgoing list at other hotels, but they might serve a "free" continental breakfast (donuts, coffee, cereal, sometimes even waffles), a bookcase with various books that had been left behind that you could borrow and return or leave in your room (or walk off with them), a restaurant and bar (I know all about those), a washer and dryer, and Lord knows what else.
Marriott left enough pens in your room that they almost expected you to take them. I swear, I didn’t buy a pen for fifteen years.
Everything I listed above is an amenity. Some are basics that you would expect (bed, sheets, pillows, bathroom, towels, toilet paper) but the others are either there for you to use or, in the case of pens, shampoo, soap, conditioner etc. things that you can take with you, i. e. free stuff. It’s not really free, of course; "included in the cost" probably describes it better. I’ve written two posts about free stuff here and here, if you’re interested…
The Sound of One Hand Typing 
I bought my own shampoo and conditioner when I stayed in hotels. Otherwise, I would use their soap, etc. I wasn’t one to take their items home with me except the pens.
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My parish would have drives on occasion for items for battered women’s shelters and homeless, where they would ask for trial-size toiletries, so when I thought of it, I’d grab all that stuff to donate. I figured they left that stuff for me, I’d put it to good use.
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I did the same. Donated them for years.
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I miss staying in hotels.
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A lady I used to work with said she liked leaving the room a complete mess, knowing that when she got back that afternoon the towels would be picked up, the bed made, all the stuff would be picked up off the floor…
I’ve stayed in several hotels where there’s no maid service. Utterly awful…
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I’ve always taken everything I could when I’d leave like these little things. I remember that episode of ‘Friends’ when Ross took all he could, too. Pretty funny. 🙂
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I’d take it and donate it to St. Vincent de Paul or collections for battered women’s shelters.
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That’s a wonderful idea and I’m sure they appreciated it. 🙂
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Always take the pens, they do expect it, free advertisement 🙂
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My company used to give out special pens that had a highlighter at the other end, and people were complainng that one or the other was running out. I suggested we give them a Bic Stick (like the ones from Marriott) and a highlighter, both of which had the company logo, name and phone number. Would have cost much less and we’d have our name out there twice, once on the pen and once on the highlighter, and they wouldn’t run out of ink. Naturally they said “no.”
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Why am I not surprised they’d say no. Made too much sense.
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Well, yeah. Once, one of my many managers asked me if anything was bothering me. I told her “yeah, why are we so damn cheap?” Clients would pay $1500 a day for classes and all we can give them is a pen, half a pad of paper (I’m serious), some snacks, and free coffee? Yeah, those things cost money, and we get money when clients are happy. Duh!
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