Finding Hidden, Free Stuff on Your Next Hotel Stay
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Here's your money briefing for Tuesday, April 4th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. The idea behind giveaway groups has expanded to travel, creating a treasure hunt of sorts for hotel guests, searching for pay-it-forward items left by previous guests.
I'm not talking about last night's Chinese delivery to your room. I'm talking about things like bottled water, food, snacks, the things that, you know, a lot of times we go on vacation, we get all excited, we buy all this stuff for our room, and then we have stuff left over at the end, and this is just a way to share it with others.
Coming up, we'll talk to WSJ travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson after the break.
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Online groups like FreeCycle and BuyNothing that promote giving away free unwanted goods have become popular on social media, and now that ecosystem has extended to travelers. And no, we're not just talking about hotel shampoo or a couple of bars of soap. Dawn Gilbertson writes the WSJ's Carry On Travel column, and she joins me to discuss how these groups have created a treasure hunt of sorts for hotel guests. Hey, Dawn, thank you very much for being with us.
Thanks for having me, JR.
So, Dawn, free stuff?
What freebie-sharing trend in hotels does the episode introduce?
I thought there was no such thing as a free lunch.
You know, there's a surprising little corner of the travel industry where you can pick up some other people's vacation leftovers. I discovered it in Las Vegas and found it's much more prevalent than I thought.
You're not talking about like leftover food, right?
Oh, no, I'm not talking about last night's Chinese delivery to your room. I'm talking about things like bottled water, food, snacks, the things that, you know, a lot of times we go on vacation, we get all excited, we buy all this stuff for our room, and then we have stuff left over at the end. And this is just a way to share it with others.
So how did this trend start?
Paying it forward and sharing things with other travelers, just like with other neighbors on those buy nothing and free cycle groups has been around for a long time. But what's different now is there's Facebook groups devoted to sharing this information. You know, for example, The Disney Vacation Club, which is Disney's timeshare. I mean, several of those complexes have their own Facebook group where, you know, say families that are checking out can say, hey, we have strollers, we have diapers, we have water, we have soda. Here's where we're located or here's where we're going to put it. And would you like to come and get it for free?
Yeah, I was going to ask you, where are these things left for people then to come and get it?
It really varies by hotel, by destination. In Yellowstone, there's a Facebook group for Yellowstone visitors. And some people say, hey, we're leaving today. We're going to leave this at this place outside the park or in our hotel in Las Vegas. A really popular place for some reason, maybe just to kind of keep it out of the way, is ice machine rooms and vending machines.
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