Five Star Pad - the hotel, the pad, my period
After taking a thirteen hour flight to Muscat with a painful layover in the middle, there was nothing I was more excited for than putting my head down on a pillow when I arrived. So when I finally got to checking in at the truly spectacular hotel, there was nothing I wanted less than that feeling that I had started my period.
For some context- I am not the greatest packer. I think I had bought seven pairs of sunglasses and eight linen shirts and approximately zero period products. Looking through various drawers in the bathroom, hoping for a pad, thoughtfully left for moments like this, I instead found a mini sewing kit, a nail file and cotton ear buds.
Living in London, I would have no qualms about asking for a tampon or pad.. However, for some strange reason- I felt this immense awkwardness approaching the middle aged man at the concierge desk. He silently pointed to the front desk without making much eye contact. The front desk had lines of people waiting to check in or out. I stood in line waiting for my turn. The conversation went something like this.
“ Hello, may I please have some period products.”
“ Period products?”
“ Yes, sanitary products like a tampon or pad”.
“ Ah, one second”. ( Man refuses to make eye contact and calls over his female colleague awkwardly).
After a rather laborious back and forth with the women, she eventually understood that I needed some pads. At this point, my underwear was definitely going in the trash but I really needed pads so I decided to wait it out as they both whispered something in Arabic and went away for a few mins. Some time passed and they came back holding an envelope. In the back of my mind, I thought they had probably decided to ignore the whole conversation and bring me my room key.
“ Your pads miss” - the man whispered as he slipped the envelope under the desk to me. I met his whisper with a subtle head nod, thanked him and took my sleepy self to my room. My envelope contained a few pantyliners.
The whole transaction felt more like a drug deal on a street corner than asking for some period pads in a five star hotel.
After a broken sleep, I woke up chuckling but also quite confused. The whole transaction felt more like a drug deal on a street corner than asking for some period pads in a five star hotel. I couldn’t really tell where the block or the secrecy came from. Both of the staff were incredibly kind but the request I had seemed truly alien to them. There were no pads in the bathroom either, just a shoe horn and a nail file as usual.
I left the whole interaction confused - was this really that periods and period care was approached in hotels? With a level of secrecy that had made my request seem, at best, entirely alien. I doubt that my bold request had done anything to dismantle the stigma around menstruation at the hotel but it definitely changed the way I pack for holidays until such time when our Freda period kits appear in guest rooms.
