Danielle Thomas dashed off one last
post from Las Vegas on the way to check out of her hotel last week. It wasn’t like her others.
Instead of nightclubs and a desert ATV tour, she featured a pile of Doritos, Cheetos, orange juice, coffee creamer and water bottles stashed next to a vending machine on the 16th floor at the Horseshoe Las Vegas hotel. They were leftovers from a Walmart delivery to her room at the start of her trip.
The 38-year-old financial account representative from Alabama offered them free in a Facebook group created to help travelers save a little money when prices are high, and to reduce waste.
The idea behind giveaway groups like Freecycle or Buy Nothing that started in neighborhoods has evolved to travel. It has created an ecosystem within these pay-it-forward movements where travelers pass on free stuff at the end of a trip by sharing the location of the loot on social media.
“We all get tired of paying $6 for a bottle of water,” Mrs. Thomas says.
A surprise perk
Several
Disney
timeshare resorts have their own similar Facebook groups. Departing guests put strollers, diapers, food, drinks, sunscreen and other items up for grabs. People in groups dedicated to Yellowstone National Park trips offer leftover bear spray and other essentials.
The trend is newer in Las Vegas. Kerry Erickson, a caregiver from Des Plaines, Ill., started a Facebook group called Las Vegas Pass It On Baby in 2021 and has amassed nearly 28,000 members.
Mrs. Erickson, 40, says she saw the need for a group dedicated to free stuff after noticing people offering up leftover goodies in a popular Las Vegas travel planning group on Facebook. She says the idea solidified when she roamed the halls of the Flamingo Las Vegas handing out an assortment of extra soda, alcohol, fruit, chips and paper plates. Strangers gobbled everything up quickly.
Danielle Thomas stashed leftover items by a vending machine at her Las Vegas hotel and posted it in a Facebook group in case an incoming tourist wanted to pick them up free of charge.
Photo:
Danielle Thomas
The page started slowly but has taken off. Visitors have offered everything from Jell-O shots and leftover slot machine vouchers worth pennies to running shoes and fans. One poster said she bought the fan to drown out her husband’s snoring.
Marijuana, which is legal in recreational quantities in Nevada, gets mentioned a lot, but Mrs. Erickson reminds members to adhere to Facebook’s community standards in such postings.
Coffee makers are among the most popular Vegas freebies, she says. Some travelers bring them from home or buy them in town, since most casino hotels there don’t offer in-room coffee.
“People don’t like to get up in the morning and go downstairs to
Starbucks
and pay $15 for it,” she says.
The practice of sharing stuff you can’t or don’t want to bring home from vacation isn’t new. When my kids were young, we regularly donated pool noodles, snorkel gear, beach chairs and other goodies to families we met at the end of a trip.
And many travelers leave unwanted items in the room in hopes the housekeepers will enjoy them. (Many hotels have rules against housekeepers accepting freebies, directing them to send anything left in the room to Lost and Found.)
Dr. Wayne Baker, an author and management professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, says the impulse to pay it forward has been around since “there have been people on earth.” He recalls years ago a fellow hotel guest departing Spain leaving behind his bottled water with a note saying he hoped it would help with the heat.
The difference now? Social media. “It can be very well-organized and be a much broader network of people involved in it,” he says.
Luck of the draw
Finding free items you want or need on vacation can be a crapshoot. I was in Las Vegas over the weekend and hoped to connect with someone donating leftovers for this column. I encountered just one offer during my one-night stay, from a guest checking out of the Cosmopolitan: a half-full bottle of Tito’s vodka. I passed.
Sometimes the competition for stuff is stiff, even if you run the group. Mrs. Erickson says she whiffed last year on one of the best stashes she has seen: liquor, a case of water, brownies, cupcakes and more.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you used Facebook to get free leftovers on vacation? Share your experience. Join the conversation below.
Tammy Vanderford, who works in government contracting in Moore, Okla., has given and received vacation leftovers.
A couple of years ago, she gave away a half bottle of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Select to a fellow guest at the Cosmopolitan who saw her post in the Facebook group. She scoffs at negative comments in the group that pop up whenever anyone lists or picks up an open bottle of liquor or accepts items from a stranger.
“I would say that 99.9% of people that leave stuff, whether it’s been open or not, just want to pass it along,” she says. “It’s good intentions.”
Mrs. Vanderford, 56, says she picked up a cooler full of Coke and bottled water from a departing Cosmopolitan guest on another Vegas visit minutes after it was posted in the group.
“Vegas is expensive, and if you can run down the hall and grab their leftover water, potato chips and coffee, you probably saved yourself $40 or $50,” she says.
Her money-saving ways only go so far. She has passed on freebies at hotels that were too far away from where she stays.
“I’m not going to haul an ice chest full of potato chips and Cokes across the crosswalks,” she says.
Write to Dawn Gilbertson at dawn.gilbertson@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Danielle Thomas dashed off one last
post from Las Vegas on the way to check out of her hotel last week. It wasn’t like her others.
Instead of nightclubs and a desert ATV tour, she featured a pile of Doritos, Cheetos, orange juice, coffee creamer and water bottles stashed next to a vending machine on the 16th floor at the Horseshoe Las Vegas hotel. They were leftovers from a Walmart delivery to her room at the start of her trip.
The 38-year-old financial account representative from Alabama offered them free in a Facebook group created to help travelers save a little money when prices are high, and to reduce waste.
The idea behind giveaway groups like Freecycle or Buy Nothing that started in neighborhoods has evolved to travel. It has created an ecosystem within these pay-it-forward movements where travelers pass on free stuff at the end of a trip by sharing the location of the loot on social media.
“We all get tired of paying $6 for a bottle of water,” Mrs. Thomas says.
A surprise perk
Several
Disney
timeshare resorts have their own similar Facebook groups. Departing guests put strollers, diapers, food, drinks, sunscreen and other items up for grabs. People in groups dedicated to Yellowstone National Park trips offer leftover bear spray and other essentials.
The trend is newer in Las Vegas. Kerry Erickson, a caregiver from Des Plaines, Ill., started a Facebook group called Las Vegas Pass It On Baby in 2021 and has amassed nearly 28,000 members.
Mrs. Erickson, 40, says she saw the need for a group dedicated to free stuff after noticing people offering up leftover goodies in a popular Las Vegas travel planning group on Facebook. She says the idea solidified when she roamed the halls of the Flamingo Las Vegas handing out an assortment of extra soda, alcohol, fruit, chips and paper plates. Strangers gobbled everything up quickly.
Danielle Thomas stashed leftover items by a vending machine at her Las Vegas hotel and posted it in a Facebook group in case an incoming tourist wanted to pick them up free of charge.
Photo:
Danielle Thomas
The page started slowly but has taken off. Visitors have offered everything from Jell-O shots and leftover slot machine vouchers worth pennies to running shoes and fans. One poster said she bought the fan to drown out her husband’s snoring.
Marijuana, which is legal in recreational quantities in Nevada, gets mentioned a lot, but Mrs. Erickson reminds members to adhere to Facebook’s community standards in such postings.
Coffee makers are among the most popular Vegas freebies, she says. Some travelers bring them from home or buy them in town, since most casino hotels there don’t offer in-room coffee.
“People don’t like to get up in the morning and go downstairs to
Starbucks
and pay $15 for it,” she says.
The practice of sharing stuff you can’t or don’t want to bring home from vacation isn’t new. When my kids were young, we regularly donated pool noodles, snorkel gear, beach chairs and other goodies to families we met at the end of a trip.
And many travelers leave unwanted items in the room in hopes the housekeepers will enjoy them. (Many hotels have rules against housekeepers accepting freebies, directing them to send anything left in the room to Lost and Found.)
Dr. Wayne Baker, an author and management professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, says the impulse to pay it forward has been around since “there have been people on earth.” He recalls years ago a fellow hotel guest departing Spain leaving behind his bottled water with a note saying he hoped it would help with the heat.
The difference now? Social media. “It can be very well-organized and be a much broader network of people involved in it,” he says.
Luck of the draw
Finding free items you want or need on vacation can be a crapshoot. I was in Las Vegas over the weekend and hoped to connect with someone donating leftovers for this column. I encountered just one offer during my one-night stay, from a guest checking out of the Cosmopolitan: a half-full bottle of Tito’s vodka. I passed.
Sometimes the competition for stuff is stiff, even if you run the group. Mrs. Erickson says she whiffed last year on one of the best stashes she has seen: liquor, a case of water, brownies, cupcakes and more.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you used Facebook to get free leftovers on vacation? Share your experience. Join the conversation below.
Tammy Vanderford, who works in government contracting in Moore, Okla., has given and received vacation leftovers.
A couple of years ago, she gave away a half bottle of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Select to a fellow guest at the Cosmopolitan who saw her post in the Facebook group. She scoffs at negative comments in the group that pop up whenever anyone lists or picks up an open bottle of liquor or accepts items from a stranger.
“I would say that 99.9% of people that leave stuff, whether it’s been open or not, just want to pass it along,” she says. “It’s good intentions.”
Mrs. Vanderford, 56, says she picked up a cooler full of Coke and bottled water from a departing Cosmopolitan guest on another Vegas visit minutes after it was posted in the group.
“Vegas is expensive, and if you can run down the hall and grab their leftover water, potato chips and coffee, you probably saved yourself $40 or $50,” she says.
Her money-saving ways only go so far. She has passed on freebies at hotels that were too far away from where she stays.
“I’m not going to haul an ice chest full of potato chips and Cokes across the crosswalks,” she says.
Write to Dawn Gilbertson at dawn.gilbertson@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8