You Probably Had No Idea You Can Ask The Hotel For These Freebies

A hotel acts as a home away from home for travelers, a place of refuge and respite when they explore new locales or reconnect with old ones. Like homes, hotels are designed to make you feel comfortable, safe, and secure. Properties work hard to ensure that guests are happy; after all, a content customer is a repeat customer. While hotels can accomplish this through the standard amenities of a clean, spacious room and polite, professional service, they can also make your stay memorable in other ways. It could be something as simple as an employee calling you by name or remembering how you like your pillows arranged on the bed. It could also be the free things they offer, items that, perhaps, guests don't know are available on a complimentary basis.

These small tokens are not only nice perks but can sometimes be unexpected necessities — travelers often forget to pack items when going on a trip, and the convenience of having the hotel offer them is a welcome gesture. According to a survey by travel size item supplier Minimus, almost one-fifth of respondents forget their toothbrush when they travel. While some free items that hotels allow guests to borrow or take — like complimentary hotel breakfasts, umbrellas, extra soap, pens and stationery, and basic slippers — are common knowledge, other supplies might surprise you.

A person with long hair can never have enough hair accessories. That might explain why some individuals wear hair ties on their wrists, a way to combine pragmatism with sartorial panache. You may need to tie up your hair during a vacation — maybe on a boat ride, at a dinner, or when heading down to the beach — and you know that a hair band will do the trick. And yet, you can't find one anywhere. Luckily, some hotels will supply one in a jiffy.

Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, which has 71 properties all over the globe, offers free hair bands to guests. In addition, it can lend you hair straightening and curling tools, as well as top-of-the-range hair dryers, so getting your locks to hang perfectly should be a breeze. Other amenities at the hotel chain that will help guests ensure that they look like a million dollars are a make-up mirror, nail clippers, and nail files. Free tape for temporary wardrobe malfunctions will iron out any issues with your clothes.

Visit any hotel booking site, and you'll notice that a property will have a range of room categories. They start from the entry-level type, the cheapest option, and then get bigger and pricier. The room types are demarcated by name, with labels like junior king suite, garden superior double queen, oceanview queen, overwater bungalow, etc. Typically, when you make a reservation, you book a unit within a category, not a specific room within the hotel. Since there tend to be multiple rooms within a property across each category, you will only get your actual room and room number when you check in.

If two guests reserve a standard king, one might have a city view, and the other might look onto an interior air shaft, yet both count as the same type of room. Rooms in the same category can be on a higher floor or a lower floor; they can be near the elevator or a long walk away from it. They can sit in the core of the building or at the corner. You should ask for the one that best suits your needs or your traveling style at check-in. However, you can increase your chances of getting the room you want if you call before arriving, ideally shortly after making the reservation.

Exploring a place by foot is a sound way to get under the fabric of the destination, but it's also time-consuming. Getting around by bicycle replicates the low-impact, high-connection experience of walking but allows a traveler to see and do more in a day. Bike rentals are a common service in many cities across the United States and beyond. But bicycle operations aren't always conveniently located, sometimes situated quite a distance from the hotel. Thankfully, a number of properties in the country offer guests free bike rentals.

Not only is this a user-friendly amenity — you don't have to travel across town to pick up the bike — it's also wallet-friendly. In Seattle, the Belltown Inn has a fleet of two-wheelers and supplies locks and helmets alongside them. At Ambassador Chicago, guests have two free hours on the hotel's bikes, enough time to pedal down to the Navy Pier or iconic Cloud Gate sculpture and back. In New York, several properties provide bikes for customers to use. The Arlo Midtown offers day passes for guests to use a Citi Bike, the bike-sharing network with stations all over the Big Apple.

For active travelers, continuing their exercise routine even while on vacation is critical. Some will pack their running shoes and hit the streets. Others will head to the hotel gym for a regular workout. But some people like to work out privately, in a home gym, for instance, away from the public eye. Thanks to another surprising freebie, they can recreate that sense of privacy even in a hotel room. 

Hotels recognize the desire of some guests to exercise in their rooms, which is why they've made it easy to do just that. Among the amenities a property can provide a client are yoga mats, balancing blocks, and workout bands. That way, they can perfect their downward dog or work on their arm toning comfortably and quietly. Better yet, they can ask the front desk for a massage gun, a goodie that Westin Hotels and Resorts provides guests, to ease their sore, post-workout muscles.

At the end of a long day exploring a destination, there's nothing quite like finding a comfortable seat, kicking back, having a calming drink, and taking in what you've achieved in the preceding hours. Some hotels can assist in that relaxation process with a complimentary glass or two of wine, a drink that many travelers find helps them decompress. During wine hour, often held in the lobby, guests are treated to a bit of vino. It's a way for the hotel to show its appreciation to guests for their business and a persuasive method for getting customers together to create a sense of community.

Triumph Hotels, which has six hotels in New York City, holds a wine hour at one or more of its hotels every weekday evening from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. At Kimpton La Peer Hotel in West Hollywood, the daily wine hour also takes place from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. And at White House Napa, in the heart of California wine country, guests can enjoy free bike rentals and a daily wine hour that comes with a sense of place.

Some things you can plan for and pack accordingly. Others catch you by surprise. Needing a shoe shine or sewing kit isn't something that you'd probably think about when on vacation. But, if you are on a trip and find yourself requiring a shoe shine kit or a needle and thread, chances are that you really need it right now. Suddenly, at that moment in time, something inconsequential becomes a vital, indispensable item. These two things aren't items you see in many shops, so finding them isn't as easy as it might seem.

While not all hotels offer them, some do; all it takes is a call to the front desk to get one. Also, bear in mind that these are handy kits to have on your travels, even if you don't need one during your stay there and then, so why not stock up? And for guests that prefer not to shine their shoes themselves, properties like the Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street, in Boston, will shine them overnight for free, and have them ready, spick and span, in the morning.

The boom in pet-friendly properties isn't confined to big cities. People traveling with a pet can book a room that allows cats and dogs to stay in large metro areas like Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Dallas, as well as even smaller locations. Farmington, Missouri, a town of less than 20,000 residents, for example, has five pet-friendly hotels, according to BringFido. 

Some hotels might already offer a doggie bag filled with treats as part of a welcome to guests with four-legged company. But even if they don't, they can provide them for free if you ask. The Alexandrian in Virginia will supply dog beds, bowls, and treats to visitors with a pooch. Visitors should note that hotels typically charge a fee to bring a pet into the hotel, which goes toward ensuring that the room gets a thorough cleaning for the next guest. The rest of the amenities are gratis.