What To Do With Leftover Hotel Items

If you own or operate a hotel, you have some guests who accidentally leave behind personal items or luggage in your hotel. In addition, after renovating a hotel, you may have old appliances on hand that you no longer need. Instead of throwing these leftover things away, consider donating them! There are plenty of organizations that would love to re-purpose the goods you want to get rid of—and you’ll be doing a good deed in the process. It’s a win-win situation!

In this blog post, you’ll get a list of items commonly left behind or leftover in hotels and helpful ideas for what to do with them.

• Hotel Coffee Makers: Shelters love these. Did you know that they can be used as soup makers and egg fryers? You can even pop popcorn in them!
• Toilets: If you’re doing a significant hotel renovation and plan on replacing toilets, consider donating your old ones to Habitat for Humanity. They’ll use them for future home builds. The same goes for outlets, lamps, and desks.
• Bulk Toilet Paper Rolls: Instead of tossing unfinished toilet paper rolls, throw them in a box and once you have collected a few, give them to a shelter. This is an operating supply that is in great need.
• Luggage: Many guests from overseas love to shop in the US for products that would otherwise be much more expensive at home, like jeans and other fashions. Sometimes, they might buy a bigger suitcase and leave their small one behind in your hotel. Look to donate luggage left behind to local foster care programs. Since many foster children don’t have anything to carry their belongings in, they can’t take their personal items with them when they have to be relocated to another foster family. The suitcases you donate will allow these children to keep their belongings when moving to a new home.
• Toys, stuffed animals, and other children’s items: Save and donate these items to kids in need through your local Division of Family Services, Foster Children Division. Local homeless shelters for families will also gladly accept them.
• Eyeglasses: Lion’s Club and Goodwill will accept prescription glasses and give them to people in need.
• Uniforms: Front desk uniforms (without a logo) make great interview clothing for a mom who needs a job to get out of a homeless shelter. Banquet server, stewarding, and other uniforms help people in need have the proper clothing to wear to a new job.
• Dishes, glasses, and kitchenware: Shelters and other placement agencies will take these items so when a family moves into their own home, they have the basics to make a meal.
• Linens: Animal shelters are always looking for old linen!
• Casegoods: Casegoods and other furniture can be donated to Habitat for Humanity, homeless shelters, domestic violence support groups, or nonprofits that support rehoming families.

Do you have any more donation ideas for leftover and left behind hotel items? At Innvision, our specialty is interior design and FF&E procurement, but what we love most is providing hotel owners and operators the resources they need to succeed. It’s even better when we can all help others and the planet in the process! To learn more about how Innvision can support you, contact us today.

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