I’ve written about a lot of hotels cutting corners to save expenses and tacking on bogus fees, but I’ve never heard of a hotel not including soap in the room…until now.
This Hilton Hotel Says Soap Is Not Included With “Standard” Rooms
I remember the worst motel I ever stayed in was about 20 years ago, when I first started traveling on my own. I was studying 19th-century US history at UCLA and traveled to Nashville to visit The Hermitage, the home of US President Andrew Jackson. I wound up at a little motel near The Hermitage aptly called The Hermitage Inn…wow….it soon became clear why it was $40/night:
dirty towels, cigarette burns in the tub, ripped sheets…and no soap!
(the hotel is still open and you can stay there for $53 tonight!)
But ever since that, I cannot recall ever staying a hotel, motel, inn, or even hostel that did not have soap.
But View From The Wing shares a disturbing report about a Hilton hotel in Texas, specifically the Hampton Inn Dallas-Arlington Entertainment District, which does not provide soap to its “entry-level” guests.
Tonight I checked in a Hampton Inn, and realize there was no soap in the bathroom. I went to the front desk and asked for soap or body wash. The Front Desk stated that soap and body wash is not provided in their standard rooms.
This is the first time I’ve heard of this, anybody else come across this?
No soap? What are people supposed to do when they defecate, just use their left hand?
Ironically, the hotel website has photos of soap in the guest bathroom (though perhaps even more ironically, from the Hilton Garden Inn rather than the Hampton Inn), but it appears that you don’t get soap or body wash unless you pay to upgrade.
(The guest ultimately managed to score a bar of soap only after shaming the front desk into providing it)
This predicament exposes a problem in the US that only seems to be getting worse. Poor and untrained service as hotels try to reduce labor expenses and therefore cannot retain talented people is nothing new, but the degree to which chain hotels are trying to “have their cake and eat it too” just gets worse.
You would think a hotel that benefits so much from using the Hilton brand would at least meet the basic requirements of a Hilton hotel as part of the franchise agreement, and I’m sure that includes soap. Are we even having this discsussion?! It’s crazy.
Hilton (and Marriott and Hyatt) must step up and insist that their true customers–the hotels that license their brand–keep their end of the bargain in order to enjoy the benefits and steady stream of customers that comes from using the brand name. This should be non-negotiable…you fix it now or you will be de-listed.
And to this particular hotel, how petty and literally disgusting…
CONCLUSION
A Hampton Inn in the Dallas area thinks it does not have to provide guests with soap. That’s absurd, though I guess I will have to start placing a travel-size bar of soap in my toiletry bag…what a world.
I don’t remember ever staying at a place that didn’t provide any type of soap, so washing one’s hands was always possible without having to bring my own soap.
However, what I learned quickly was that barely any place used to provide the most basic bathroom amenity: shower gel or body wash. They always had shampoo, sometimes even conditioner (which only a subset of people ever uses), but no shower gel. So I am used to bring that with me when travelling (at least when travelling to the US).
Now that many hotels switched from those mini bottles to those larger bottles one finds shower gel more often.
Offering no soap is really a new low. And no kind of body wash. So you can’t take a shower and even can’t wash your hands … if you don’t bring your own stuff. Wow.
I wouldn’t consider shower gel/body wash as necessary. A bar of bath soap is fine. Since most have moved to refillable big bottles, I just bring my favorite bar soap with me (and my preferred shampoo). I understand tastes differ, but I can’t stand showering with liquid soap.
They will get bad reviews online. TripAdvisor DFW is relentless. Not worth it for the owner to have angry customers over $500 a month in soap. I remember living down the street from UCLA when Michael Jackson died at Ronald Reagan Medical Center.
Since Hampton Inn provides free breakfast, does it comply with Department of Health standards patrons unable to wash hands before handling food at the buffet?
That’s why I don’t eat hotel breakfasts anymore at those type of places.
I’m impressed you still have the pics from the Hermitage Inn. And the biggest red flag is when you see “weekly” rentals advertised at any hotel. Run, don’t walk.
As for the Hilton issue I would hope this was escalated by the customer to corporate. Totally unacceptable.
The hotel was full of Section 8 recipients. Run by a nice Indian guy who ended up driving me himself to the airport (for $20) back in the pre-Uber days. But what nasty rooms.
There’s a hotel in Boston where United flight attendants layover. It hasn’t had soap in the rooms in over a decade…part of their “green” initiative. As I recall, it is part of the Marriott family of hotels. You can ask for a bar at the front desk.
IHG eliminated the requirement for bar soap about three years ago. Marriott eliminated it at some brands in late 2024.
I don’t mind the lack of bar soap if there is body wash (not that I prefer it), but this hotel didn’t have that either.
Body wash is NOT the same as soap. Even liquid hand wash isn’t the same nor as effective.
It’s all psychological to an extent (to me), but I prefer hand wash over bar soap because I always end up using less than half the bar soap and leaving it behind.
I wager the Hermitage pool is delightful.
Probably a delightful shade of green…
Nothing more refreshing than a pool with thick water. /s
Was not clear to me from post if any liquid soap (M says not). If not that is egregious! I just stayed at IHG BDL which was lovely but was surprised to see the whole counter empty! No soap, cups, shower cap nothing!
That was just a housekeeping error, no?
I sometimes bring a bar of soap so that I can take the bar of soap from the hotel. Hilton Garden Inn soap is decent.
How about no sheets unless you upgrade? Or no toilet paper?
This is so completely bonkers that I feel like there must be more to this. That is that they are having issues with their soap shipment and experiencing shortages – so are just telling guests this – or the employee was just being lazy. Regardless, I have seen hotels have shortages of items before and they typically will ad hoc borrow supplies from other nearby hotels, especially if under the same ownership.
As to your discussing service levels in the U.S.? We have truly reached the bottom. Uneducated, untrained, and uncaring is the central theme. It seems to be central to our entire society in America now. No one cares anymore.
Seems like a health code violation. If u offer a bathroom isn’t soap required?
Interestingly I stayed at the Anselmo in Buenos Aires over the weekend, which happens to be a Hilton property. It didn’t have soap either. The shower, which was very small and fairly accessible from the sink, had conditioner and shampoo, but indeed no body wash. It doesn’t surprise me that Hilton might be the first brand to cut soap on a global scale.
The Northwest Law review blog has discussed the need for prisoners to be provided soap for hygiene purposes. So apparently if you are locked up you get an amenity kit with soap! If you are a guest at the Hilton nope. What’s next?
Read the original review on google before commenting. It appears Some guy trying to extort the hotel with a fake review. He never even stayed there. I guess it helps to research before commenting
Are we talking about different reviews? I saw this on reddit and there were others who confirmed they also did not get soap at that hotel…
I’d just call the health department.
I’d bet there’s more to the story than meets the eye. It’s possible the hotel ran out or failed to receive a shipment of bar soap due to a supply issue or ordering mistake and told employees to ration it. Hotel front desk now being a minimum wage job, the front desk just ineptly made up an unconvincing excuse to explain it. I think in such a situation, no soap for the guy that booked on Priceline, and soap for the Hhonors member who booked direct would not be unreasonable until the supply returned. A good manager would have gone out and procured soap on their own– but remember, management positions at most hotels are usually near-minimum wage jobs. Don’t expect professionalism at that wage.
US is again leading. In cheapness. LOL.