`Intimacy Kits' Now Stocked By Some Hotels, Airlines

Nearly every traveler has rifled the hotel mini-bar late at night when those pesky cravings arise, searching for some Schweppes bitter lemon, a Kit-Kat bar, some roasted nuts or - oh yes, there it is - a condom.

"I think it makes a lot of sense to find it within your convenient mini-bar rather than go out and stand in line at Walgreen's," says Abed Shalhout, director of food and beverage at the upscale Cliff House in San Francisco.

He began stocking "intimacy kits" four years ago and says they sell about 275 kits a month, at $7 each.

The Cliff House is among a few dozen high-end hotels in the United States that offer a little assistance to patrons in libidinous need.

"Sales have picked up," says Wanda Jones, president of In-Room Plus in Buffalo, N.Y., which manufactures the kits, along with other more conventional products for mini-bars.

"We were unsure about even doing it. But then we had quite a few hotels that wanted it."

Hotels aren't the only ones lending a helping hand in personal matters.

Packets of condoms are being handed out at business conventions these days, as well - tucked in among all the speakers' bios and the schedules of events.

And for air travelers, Air France promises that if luggage is lost - excuse me, that's "misplaced" - the overnight amenity kit provided to you will include some of those same prophylactic accouterments, along with the usual toiletries.

"All the types of things that someone might have had in their luggage," says Air France spokesman Dean Berets.