My quick stay sadly wasn't a fit for using it, but I was curious of this was a trend. I did some digging on hotel sex kits, and my mind was blown. From the SLS Las Vegas to the Drake Hotel in Toronto, a number of hotels around the world are helping guests get off. Vacation sex is some of the best sex there is, and this takes it to a whole new level.
The Drake, for one, provides a "Pleasure Menu" with 14 sexy items for sale, including bondage tape, a silk blindfold, a butt plug, a Je Joue Fifi rabbit vibrator, and a We-Vibe Classic. The offerings have been "very popular since their inception," Ana Yuristy, executive director of corporate services at Drake Hotel Properties, tells Men’s Health. "Having them available to hotel guests certainly helps set the mood, whether you are the more adventurous type or just being introduced to some of these offerings for the first time.”
Yuristy says the Pleasure Menu is currently in its third iteration—"and, in my opinion, the very best yet in terms of inclusiveness and satisfying a diverse range of bodies and sexual interests."
Some hotel sex kits are elaborate, like the Drake's, while others contain just the essentials. New Indulgence, a company that supplies sex kits to 1 Hotels, MGM Resorts International, Dream Hotels, Gansevoort Hotels + Resorts, and more, offers two kinds: an "emergency" kit with condoms and lube, and a more advanced one, like the one in my room at the Jeremy Hotel. Barb Greiert, the owner of New Indulgence, says the advanced kits are more popular in hotels.
"Emergency-type kits don't sell as well in hotels because the only people who purchase them are guests who use, and apparently ran out of, condoms,” Greiert tells Men's Health. “However, if a kit has condoms plus fun items for couples—mini vibrators, couple's vibrating rings, blindfolds, etc.—then just about any couple might enjoy the kit."
Not every hotel is as sexually liberal as the Drake, with its 14-item Pleasure Menu. In Greiert's experiences, some hotels are down to stock the "emergency" kits, but take a hard pass on selling the more advanced options. “In the same city, one hotel might have a more conservative clientele and another might have more provocative guests," she says. "Therefore, we need to offer custom kits that fit the hotel brand and their guests."
So should you try out a sex kit? I mean, why not? For starters, you'll save room in your suitcase—and avoid a potentially awkward TSA encounter—if you can leave your own sex toy collection at home. ("Excuse me sir, is that a sharp object in your bag, or are you just bringing a vibrator on vacation?") Plus, it's an opportunity to branch outside of your usual toys and try some new things with ease. Embrace it! (New Indulgence's sex kits even have eco-friendly packaging—the one in my room at the Jeremy had packaging made from post-consumer waste.)
Greiert claims that hotel managers report sex kits to be among their top-earning mini-bar items, so if you choose to indulge, you certainly won't be alone.
This article originally appeared on Men's Health