I know this is thread creep, and forgive me, but since the subject line contains "hotels", "gifts", and "moral questions", I feel justified in raising the issue.

In the UK, the amount lost to hotels through purloining of toiletries pales in comparison with the amount that hotels rake in through misappropriating (with the full blessing of the law) the tips and gratuities which unwitting guests intend to go direct to the staff, but which are universally diverted into the owners' pockets when the guests make these gratuities by credit or debit card.

The law states that the employer may use these gratuities to make up the basic wage of his staff, he is not compelled to make any payments over and above. No doubt some employers (probably a very small minority) do in fact pay the staff the gratuities as intended by the guest, but in the vast majority of cases, they don't.

The solution of course is simple. When you stay in a hotel, or eat in a restaurant in the UK (or for that matter in any EEC country) make sure that when you tip the staff, you do so directly and tip them in cash, and refuse to pay any bogus "service charge".