Linens in hotels

Is it safe to assume that even budget hotels will provide towels if they provide bathroom with toilet and shower?

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Yes, you may assume that !

(Europe is not Outer Mongolia, you know......)

Only joking - and yes, they will be changed every day, even in budget hotels. You will get one small towel and one big towel, and sometimes (not always) one of these small mats to put in front of the showerstall. Bedlinen will normally not be changed, if you are there for only a week. More upscale hotels change the bedlinen during even a short stay, I believe.

Last summer I stayed in Hotel de l%26#39;Esperance in the 5th arr. (also a budget hotel) in the middle of the July heatwave, and I had my bedlinen changed half way through the week - but don%26#39;t count on that at all times.

As to soap and shampoo, I suggest you bring your own (in your check-in suitcase, remember). In budget hotels these would normally be lowquality-products, so I only use them to wash my hands. Again: in upscale hotels you will have plenty of these toiletries, including bodylotion, makeup-remover, mouthwash etc etc.

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Thank you, Gitte! =)

The last time I went through Europe, I was backpacking and staying at hostels, so I had no idea if it was customary for budget hotels to provide towels and linens without an extra cost.

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From my experience, however, they don%26#39;t usually supply wash clothes. If you%26#39;re a wash cloth user then you have to get creative with the smaller towel.

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Hi Mich-noto

It seems you should definitely bring your own washcloth. You probably have not seen the old threads on washcloths and their differing uses in different countries but the general thrust of the advice is to bring one if you need one. Here is one classic thread on the washcloth subject from the London forum

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g186338-i17-k53620…

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Faux, that was really quite funny. Who would have known! I just remember wishing I%26#39;d brought some old worn out wash clothes for washing my face..ones I could have just thrown out after using them. Or if I%26#39;d have been really creative, I could have cut up a ratty old towel into wash cloth pieces. Well, I%26#39;ll save that in my memory bank for my NEXT trip to Paris.

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not actually a bad question -- yes you will get a towel but it may be a rag that no US hotel would EVER put out for the public -- cheap European hotels are perfectly happy providing threadbare towels that we would use as cleaning rags

better hotels may provide those kind of waffle/napkin like towels which are lovely but may be offputting to Americans used to terry cloth towels -- it is like drying yourself with a linen napkin

midrange hotels may provide either terry or the flat linen like towels and usually provide a large towel and a small one, often at the bidet

and no hotels in my experience provide wash clothes -- so bring your own -- we usually save our worn out washcloths for just this purpose -- we pack several and then just toss them out as they molder on the road --

all hotels have soap but it may be a tiny plastic packet of universal bodywash/shampoo/soap -- or a teensy pellet

of soap -- we generally carry at least one small bar of deodorant soap (which is also unavailable in our experience in Europe) and our own hair products

if you are staying in one place for awhile, it is also fun to go out and get local products like soap, shampoo etc -- I still have half a tube of jasmine toothpaste I got in Florence -- the the vanilla/mint and lemon toothpastes we can now get in the US were available in Europe for many years before us --

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Thanks for the morning laugh Faux!!!

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