"China's 'Star-rated Standard for Tourist Hotels' has strict regulations requiring hotels to provide such products," said Chen Xueyu, an official with the committee.

"The new edition of the standard, which is to be issued soon, emphasizes this point." Chen added.

Each item of soap, shampoo, lotion, toothbrush and paste, bath cap and towel is evaluated as one point before a hotel is star-rated.

A five-star hotel is required to have 390 points and bathing necessities account for eight points.

Mixed reactions

Chen said that in a recent survey asking locals their opinions on stopping supply of the products, about 70 per cent opposed.

"It's too inconvenient for travellers to take so many trivial things here and there," said Samantha Zhou, an office worker. "They are a burden during the trip."

She said it's embarrassing to take a glass to get some shampoo from the concierge when travelling in Europe.

"Fortunately, I took a pair of slippers from a Beijing hotel before leaving, otherwise I had to walk barefoot on the ice-cold ground," she said.

However, to Joy Lu, a businesswoman who goes out of the city on business for weeks, those products are not necessary.

"For anyone who stays in a hotel for more than two weeks, he or she will be picky about these things." Lu said.

"The toothbrush is too hard and the shampoo makes my hair as dry as straw. I don't trust their quality and I prefer to take my favourite products with me," Lu said.

Nancy Xu, executive housekeeper at the Crowne Plaza Shanghai, said 85 per cent of guests used the toothbrushes and soap, 40 per cent used shampoo, and 27 per cent, the hair conditioner.

Suspicious quality

Although the government has regulations that star-ranked hotels must provide such items, they lack a standard for quality.

"Whether to select good or ordinary quality products is decided by the hotels themselves," Chen said.

Some, such as Pudong Shangri-La, put domestic and imported products respectively in standard rooms and Presidential Suites, while the others, for example, the Crowne Plaza Shanghai, place the same products in better and exquisite containers in luxury suites.

Some guests take items from the room when leaving, either for future trips or as souvenirs.

In recent years, China's hotels have paid attention to environmental protection in daily operations, Chen said.

After the Pudong Shangri-La became the first hotel in Shanghai to get the ISO14001 certificate (focusing on environmental-protection) evaluated by the British company Llyod's, many other hotels have taken steps to meet higher standards in this area.

Lack of standards

Plastic laundry bags and bottles have been changed to biodegradable products, and disposable shampoo and bath foam bottles have been replaced by large ones with air-pressure lids to reduce waste. The unused soap is placed in staff dressing and dining rooms.

"Since there are no common international standards in assessing the star-rated hotels, we have no plan to go after some European, Japanese and South Korean hotels that don't provide bathing products in the suite but guests can ask for them from the hotels," Chen said.

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