Shampoo, Where Are You?

Travel Blog  •  Alexander Basek  •  02.10.09 | 11:57 AM ET

Photo by kerinin via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Today I want to talk to you about a very important subject: tiny bottles of shampoo. A few weeks back the Wall Street Journal ran an article noting that hotels were cutting back on some amenities in their rooms. I haven’t noticed this first-hand yet. Admittedly, I don’t have a whole lot of hair, so shampoo cutbacks have less of an effect on me. What I did notice the other week was the ol’ amenity switcheroo. You know: A hotel’s website touts Malin + Goetz goodies in their bathrooms, but when you arrive you find bottles of Palin & Petz instead.

OK, I made that brand up—think of it as the lotion equivalent of off-brand soda—but it does feel like a harbinger of cost-cutting measures we’ll be contending with in the coming year. I don’t begrudge all of them; I never ate the contents of those weird fruit baskets. But I do wish hotels would be more up front about the cutbacks.

I, for one, will not spend precious vacation energy monitoring those tiny bottles. I intend to focus on the ones in the minibar instead. In the meantime, stockpile those fancy shampoos while you still can.

Tags: Hotels, News and Briefs

Alexander Basek is a food and travel writer based in New York City. He is the Best Deals reporter for Travel + Leisure. His writing has also appeared in the New York Post, Time Out New York, and Fodor's.


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