Only enjoy half the view.

@Freiheit halve the length of time in the shower too? Or only get wet from every second water droplet?

Are they charging you half price for the room?

"it is ethically important to me" -> philosophy.stackexchange.com

@Harper I rarely check that, but have never seen as low as the half.

@Moyli: They "put" basically unlimited access to tap water into the room, yet they don't want guests to open the tab on maximum upon arrival and let the water run until the guest's departure. The general expectation may simply be that "guests should use exactly as much as they need during their stay". That assumption sure holds for food on buffets and the like, so why should it be different for items in the room?

@Harper lmao. "Don't look at that bird, that bird was not included in the room rate. You may look at THAT squirrel. But only if he stays in THOSE trees. You may enjoy the sunset only during the morning. You may enjoy the grass only when dead and brown"

@ahmedus, I appreciate your point that this is an abstract moral issue. Here's an important point to consider. As you know, there are indeed certain items in the room, which are indeed clearly and definitively marked as being for sale - those items are not in the free-to-take category. Thus, for some 30 years now you can NOT just take the bathrobes - they're for sale and very clearly marked as such. Generally, you can NOT take the sodas / mini-alcohols; they are clearly indicated as such. (Sometimes, in contrast, water bottles are free to take.) ...

.. in some rooms you can, say, use the cable channels freely, and in others you must pay for movie/whatever use. Note, I have indeed been in one or two hotels where certain pricey cosmetics on hand were not free, it was clearly indicated (just like a bottle of scotch, or the bathrobe) that, if you happened to want to, you could use it and then pay. Given that: you have the answer to your question: certain items are indeed completely free-to-use in the room, others are indeed for-sale, and very clearly indicated. You now have your absolute ethical and commercial answer: they are free!

@Fattie: "certain items are indeed completely free-to-use in the room, others are indeed for-sale, and very clearly indicated." - the vast majority of items is not indicated to be for sale in most hotels, and yet not meant to be taken away. Large things such as chairs or the TV set, but also seemingly "removable" items like bedsheets, towels, and the bathrobes (which are, in my experience, not marked as being for sale in many hotels).

Hey OR ! It's pretty obvious you can't take away the TV. :) Regarding "consumable items" (not the TV), they are extremely clearly marked if you have to pay for them and equally clear if you can take them freely. Happy new year!

This makes me miss when you could freely take the bathrobes from hotels, as a marketing souvenir with the logo. It's a crazy decision hotels made to try to sell them as a velben good.

@Fattie: "It's pretty obvious you can't take away the TV. :)" - unfortunately, some people (pretend to) think otherwise. That notwithstanding, I have been to one hotel in China where each room had a long price list that actually did include more or less everything in the room (all pieces of furniture, even parts of the wall panelling and lamps, etc.). Other than that, I disagree with the claim that "they are extremely clearly marked if you have to pay for them and equally clear if you can take them freely". In most other hotels I have been to, most things are unmarked, and it is left ...

... open and thus unclear whether or not you may take them with you when leaving the room. Which is also evidenced by the very existence of this question. (And as a tangential remark: When you reply to a comment, please mention the complete user name (using tab completion), or else the user will not be notified and might only stumble upon your response by chance when visiting the question again.)

hi @O.R.Mapper heh good anecdote. Yeah in terms of the OP's question it is very clear that "soaps" are in the category "They are yours" whereas, say, "bathrobes" are in the marked category "For sale". Happy new year!

@Fattie: "in terms of the OP's question it is very clear that 'soaps' are in the category 'They are yours'" - no, it is not. For instance, as I already alluded to in another comment‌​, when searching the web for the question in German, one can find numerous articles where lawyers explain it is, legally speaking, theft if you take hotel soap home instead of using it during your stay. Hence, very different opinions on this topic exist; a fact that, I'd say, can pretty much be summarized as "it's not clear".

Hi @O.R.Mapper ! Yeah those lawyers are fabulously wrong. Of course there's obscure, arcane, exceptions - to everything. If I asserted "in a hotel room, you can use as much toilet tissue as you wish", of course one could find obscure exceptions to that. I appreciate the clarity you bring to the issue, cheers for now!

@Fattie: Granted, the question is not directly about taking things away from the room. So the situation may indeed be different. I just don't think the explicit marking is as omnipresent as you insinuate it to be, but for many items, it is still clear without such a marking.