Here is the swag from the Sheraton National in Arlington, Virginia:
You can see all the hotel swag from the Arlington, Virginia Sheraton National (and plenty of others):
If you have any photos of hotel swag that you would like to share, join the Flickr Pool and upload them. We’d love to see what you have.
Long ago, I remember watching an episode of MTV Cribs. I think it was about the guys from Blink 182. They were showing off their tour bus and they had a box of key cards from all the hotels that they stayed at while they were on the road.
Are key cards SWAG? Are you allowed to take them?
My instinct was NO. They open the freakin’ door, they can be reprogramed and reused, so NO, you shouldn’t keep them. They probably cost the hotel a lot of money.
Then I looked up how much they cost:
A hotel can buy a box of 1000 preprinted key cards for $85. That makes them less than 10 cents apiece. Of course, the custom printed key cards will cost more, but assuming the custom printed cards are 20 cents, that makes them less than the shampoo they leave by your bathtub.
It looks like people even collect and exchange key cards:
Are hotel key cards SWAG? My instinct says no, but it appears that everyone else disagrees with me.
If you have taken pictures of Hotel SWAG, please share them with us on Flickr:
Or you can contact me and I can post them here and give you credit for it:
On our way back from Billings, we stayed the night at the Best Western Crosswinds Motor Inn in West Yellowstone, Montana. They also allow pets, but if you have allergies, you won’t be able to tell because their rooms are so clean. Here is the SWAG as it was presented on 08-24-07:
This motel is within walking distance of all the fun places in West Yellowstone. It’s right on the main strip and our room faced the busy road, but we couldn’t hear road traffic because the insulation was so good. Our room had a refrigerator in it, which was an added bonus that we didn’t expect.
After such a harrowing trip, the Crosswinds Motor Inn was a quiet and pleasant place for us to rest on our way home.
If you have taken pictures of Hotel SWAG, please share them with us on Flickr:
Or you can contact me and I can post them here and give you credit for it:
Without a doubt, my favorite place to stay in Billings, Montana is the Clock Tower Inn. They accept pets, but their rooms are clean and didn’t set off my husband’s allergies. It is closest to the best restaurants in Billings. I have stayed at plenty of hotels in Billings, but my favorite is the Clock Tower Inn. Here is the hotel SWAG as it was presented on 08-20-07:
I’m ashamed to say that the SWAG at this hotel made me squeal with joy.
On the back of the toilet, they had extra toilet paper, a shower cap and a disposal bag. I love the container for the shower cap. If you actually USE a shower cap and want to keep it, this is the BEST little box for one because it allows the cap to dry, it’s recloseable and it is compact.
I usually don’t take pictures of the coffee setup at hotels because I don’t drink coffee, but everything looked so good, I snapped a picture of the coffee as well.
They even performed a little bit of toilet paper origami. It’s little touches like this that make the hotel experience all the better.
We had to stay in Billings because my grandfather died. It was a horrible time for us and the one respite we had at the end of those hard days was coming back to the Clock Tower Inn. I’m so grateful for them.
If you have taken pictures of Hotel SWAG, please share them with us on Flickr:
Or you can contact me and I can post them here and give you credit for it:
While we were being misled by timeshare people at the Excalibur Hotel, the rest of my family stayed at Hooters Hotel and Casino just down Tropicana Blvd. Here is what their SWAG looked like on 08-09-07:
Looks amazing compared the the Excalibur SWAG, right? Yeah… it does. In the collection, was a grooming kit. Here is what the grooming kit looks like when you open it up:
My family really enjoyed staying at Hooters Hotel and Casino. Considering how scantily clad most of the cocktail waitresses are in Las Vegas, Hooters is actually pretty tame. I liked the laid-back island atmosphere. Since we were so angry at Excalibur, we ended up spending all our time at Hooters instead.
If you have taken pictures of Hotel SWAG, please share them with us on Flickr:
Or you can contact me and I can post them here and give you credit for it:
Last month, we took a quick trip to Las Vegas. We stayed at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino. Here is how the SWAG was presented on 08-09-07:
We were less impressed with Excalibur this time than the previous times we’ve stayed there.
When we arrived, we were exhausted. Loaded down with suitcases, we headed to the registration counter. A friendly lady approached us and asked if we were checking in. We told her yes and she told us to follow her.
She led us down the hall over some stairs (lugging our suitcases up the stairs) and to a timeshare desk!
The registration desk was in the complete opposite direction. When we realized we were at the wrong place, I asked, “Are you just trying to sell us timeshares?!” The lady at the counter said, “No, I’m trying to give you free tickets to a show.” I can’t believe she lead us the wrong direction and watched us lug our heavy suitcases up those stairs. I was so angry, I wanted to leave the hotel, but we had already paid for our room, so we checked in.
When are the Las Vegas hotels going to learn that the timeshare people are just pissing off their customers? We’re skipping the Excalibur next time we go to Vegas.
If you have taken pictures of Hotel SWAG, please share them with us on Flickr:
Or you can contact me and I can post them here and give you credit for it:
Once again, it’s Hotel SWAG week. Today, we are showing the hotel SWAG from the Days Inn in Billings, Montana. These photos were taken 07-29-07:
This was on the counter by the sink:
This was taken in the shower. We had a handicaped room (saved us $5 a night), so all we had was a shower. This bath mat with soap and shampoo were sitting on the shower seat.
I liked this hotel. There was a friendly cat who lived there. He liked to sit on the printer and would let me pet him if he happened to be in the hall.
If you have taken pictures of Hotel SWAG, please share them with us on Flickr:
Or you can contact me and I can post them here and give you credit for it:
I love it when the people who make up my hotel room do this with the toilet paper:
It costs the hotel nothing to teach their employees to do this and I prefer a small touch like this WAY more than those little sewing kits they include sometimes.
Here is a site that gives step by step instructions for toilet paper origami:
Part of me just looks at the work for toilet paper and thinks it’s crazy to do something like that, but the child in me loves that the hotel even cares about my toilet paper experience. If they can’t put in Charmin rolls, this is the next best thing!
If you bring all your own toiletries, then those little bottles of shampoo and bars of soap are pretty much useless, right? Wrong! They are your hotel-given right and you stuff them into your suitcase every day before you let housekeeping tidy up because they are one of the benefits of staying in a hotel. You end up coming home with a suitcase full of dirty clothes and tiny bottles. What do you do with them?
Use Them: In the privacy of your own home, you can use them. Lots of hotels have teamed up with famous toiletry brands, so it’s a chance to try out a new shampoo without risk. Try them on a weekend or any other day that it’s not essential that you look perfect and see if the shampoo works with your hair.
Empty Out The Bottles And Fill Them With YOUR Stuff: If you need a small bottle of your favorite hand lotion in your purse, the hotel SWAG bottles are ideal. The bottles are also good for filling with your favorite products and taking with you in your toiletry bag. I covered how to do this in detail here: Travel Size Your Way.
Give Them To Children: Kids love things that seem like they were made for them. I remember as a child that my grandpa would come home with the hotel SWAG from his business trips. I thought those little bottles were made for me because they looked just like normal shampoo bottles, just smaller. I especially loved the facial soaps because I thought they were just like a normal bar of soap, but it was small enough to fit into MY hands.
Keep Them For Guests: When you have guests visit, you can give them to your guest or leave them in your guest bathroom (I used to have one of those, but now, we all share). You can pretend like you’re a little hotel.
Give Them To A Homeless Shelter: My last Hotel SWAG pile went to our local homeless shelter right after we had a surge of refugees because of Hurricane Katrina. Our homeless shelter asked for personal hygiene supplies because so many people were without ANYTHING, even soap. Here is a directory: Homeless Shelters. You can find your nearest shelter and ask if they need toiletries.
I’m sending my huge pile off to Crossroads Urban Center here in Utah, but I wanted to take photos of it all before I did. There is something fun about hotel SWAG and I didn’t want to lose that fun without a way to remember it.
We stayed at The Menger Hotel in San Antonio back in September of 2006. It was a wonderful stay. I think this was the first time I snapped a photo of hotel SWAG while it was in the room.
The presentation was so nice with the basket and the washcloths that I took a photo of it and started a tradition for myself of taking pictures of hotel SWAG in the hotel. The SWAG is labeled, “Gilchrist and Soames.” According to their website:
“A leading manufacturer of luxurious shampoos, soaps and body lotions. Gilchrist & Soames products are found internationally in upscale hotels and resorts.”
I have an entire collection of these and have never used them. Ever since I set up my Toiletry Bag, I haven’t had the need to use the hotel SWAG. That doesn’t stop me from collecting them, though.
What do I do with all the hotel SWAG that I collect, though? Stay tuned tomorrow for hints on what to do with your hotel SWAG.
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