My hands were as dry as parchment when I checked into a hotel on a bitterly cold day last winter. I went straight to the bathroom, where I discovered that – egad! – there was no moisturizer to be found.

Nor was there any shower gel for bathing – just plain old skin-drying soap. Where were my favorite toiletries?

Once, you could count on your average hotel room to be almost as well-stocked as a Walmart. Walk into the bathroom and you’d find shampoo, conditioner, lotion, mouthwash, a shower cap and not one but two bars of soap.

Lost a button on your blouse? Mending kit right this way. Want to buff your shoes? Grab the shoe mitt.

But the recession put the brakes on such bountiful in-room accouterments. Suddenly, shampoo was in, conditioner was out – kind of like a restaurant placing a salt shaker on a table without its pepper twin. And forget about needle and thread and shoe mitts.

The hotel business is reviving as people start to travel again. But the never-ending competition for guests is fiercer than ever, because travelers are being pickier than ever.

The upshot? The latest war of the amenities.

By offering new and varied extras in their rooms, hotels “think they will have differentiation,” said Glenn Haussman, editor-in-chief of industry magazine Hotel Interactive. “But other brands pick up on them, and the leads gained are lost quickly.”

In any economy, luxury hotels offer more amenities, budget hotels fewer. But some things are universal.

“I remember in 1967, we had a major decision to make in the Sheraton: Should we make it mandatory for all our hotels to have color TVs?” recalled Joseph McInerney, president and chief executive officer of the American Hotel and Lodging Association. “It shows you how far we’ve come.”

McInerney can offer a ticktock of the milestones: After color TV came the TV-plus-remote, then the clock radio. In the 1960s, shampoo became a must. Lotions, mouthwash and more followed.

The 1970s saw the introduction of sewing kits, shoe mitts and shoe horns. In the early 1990s, coffeemakers appeared. At the end of the century, irons and ironing boards became de rigueur.

McInerney can’t remember who came up with which idea (why a sewing kit and not earplugs?), but they had their reasons.

“Hotels don’t just wake up one morning and say, ‘Gee, I’m going to do this because the consumer wants it.’ The hotel industry does research,” he said. “We’re always looking to get an edge on our competitors.”

Here’s a look at the latest stage in the evolution of hotel rooms perks:

•Hotel guests are like celebrities: They love their brand-name swag. Which is why hotels have stopped tagging toiletries with their own names in favor of L’Occitane, Molton Brown and other spa lines.

Even midrange and boutique hotels have gotten into the act. Guests can get blissful with Bliss products at Starwood’s Aloft hotels and others. Bath and Body Works work their magic at the newly renovated Holiday Inns. Morgans Hotel Group boasts Apothia products.

•Some boutique hotels now put their shampoo and conditioner in dispensers that are attached to the shower wall.

“It clearly presents cost savings in a hotel and also leads to a reduction in the amount of waste,” said Jeff Gurtman, vice president of strategy for Dana Communications in Hopewell, N.J., a marketing agency for several global hotel chains.

•Don’t always expect a bathtub. The powers-that-be have ruled that travelers, especially business travelers, don’t have time to soak in bubbles.

•While fancier bath products have made their way into the hotel room, shower caps, sewing kits, mouthwash, shoe mitts, shoehorns and other “nonessential” items are making an inglorious exit (a nod to you klepto guests).

But they haven’t left the building. If you call the front desk or housekeeping and ask them nicely, someone will probably make a special delivery to your room.

•In-room coffeemakers are coming under scrutiny. Large pots are being replaced with single-serving machines – or none at all. If you want a free cup, you’ll have to get dressed and go to the lobby. Same goes for newspapers. You might be able to find a copy near the elevator or in the lobby.

•If you’ve got the middle-of-the-night munchies, you may be able to reach into the minibar, but don’t count on it.

First introduced in the ’60s, minibars have often been financial underachievers. Guests don’t want to pay $5 for a Diet Coke when they can get one cheaper at the vending machine or down the street.

For the hotel, “it’s an expensive proposition to staff someone to go around to restock minibars and do the pricing,” Dana VP Gurtman said.

Although 83 percent of the highest-end luxury hotels still have them, according to the hotel and lodging association, the further you go down the hotel food chain, the fewer you’ll see.

Only 22 percent of upscale hotels, the next level down from luxury, and 21 percent of independent hotels have them. That’s why you now often see snack shops and kiosks in lobbies or snacks on sale at the front desk.

•Most of the industry’s innovation is technological. New iPod docking stations are getting more use. At the expense of closets, workstations (the desks of yesteryear) have grown to accommodate travelers’ gadgets.

New room safes are designed with openings for cords so you can recharge your laptop while keeping it secure.