My career as a hotel thief ended in 2014 when a hotel receptionist in Bangkok stood over me while the concierge of the four-star hotel gingerly pulled a pair of blue corduroy slippers from the depths of my suitcase (I had convinced myself they would not be reused ).
Two years earlier, I had walked boldly out of the Radisson Blu Chicago into the bitter cold of a windy January day, wrapped in the hotel’s gray felt bed runner. The doorman, who agreed that British city coats are no match for minus 17 and deep snow, forgave the robbery of the hotel’s soft furnishings.
Most memorable, however, was a theft incident I witnessed in an English country house hotel. The perpetrator was a drunken Fleet Street journalist and the object of his desire was a flat-screen TV. This is what the dimwitted writer tried to clumsily sneak through reception under a white bath towel as the shocked staff looked on.
These are not isolated incidents. In a report published this week on behalf of luxury spa and hotel guide Wellness Haven, 1,376 European hotel managers were surveyed about the items most often stolen from their properties.
The research found that towels, bathrobes and coat hangers were the most commonly stolen items, with consumables such as batteries and pens more likely to be stolen from four-star hotels and luxury items such as iPads and artwork half an inch more likely to be stolen from five-star hotels. star chases.
Items stolen in greater numbers since a similar 2019 investigation include mini-fridges, lamps and, impressively, hotel mattresses, while some of the more bizarre stolen items highlighted in the report include: an entire kitchen sink (stolen from a hotel in Berlin), a grand piano (picked up by men posing as fake movers in overalls from a hotel lobby in Italy) and room numbers (broken off the door of a hotel room by a determined hotel guest in England).
German and British hotel guests are more likely to steal pedestrian items like towels and bathrobes, while American guests are fond of grabbing pillows and batteries. Italians prefer wine glasses as hotel souvenirs, while the practical Dutch stock up on toilet paper at the expense of the catering industry.
In a classic episode of Friends, Ross teaches Chandler the 101 about undercover theft from hotels: “You’ve got to find the line between ‘stealing’ and taking what the hotel owes you,” Ross says as he scolds Chandler for trying to get $ 600 to earn back. hotel bill by attracting the hotel’s restaurant and pepper shakers.
“Hairdryer, no! No! No!” he teaches, “but shampoos and conditioners: Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Amelia Andrews, a wellness entrepreneur, says her family calls the theft of hotel toiletries “doing a Ross Geller.”
“We actually only take things like body lotion from the room,” the 51-year-old explains. “I’m not brave enough to steal something like slippers or bathrobes.”
Writer Jill Davis, 45, sees a raid on the tea and coffee supplies and in-room breakfast buffet as a way to get her money’s worth. “I have been known to take a bag with me to smuggle items from hotel buffets,” she admits. “I once unpacked my stuff after an overnight stay to find my husband and I and we both had the same idea to steal mini jars of Nutella to take home as a gift for the kids. We had eight. I only took two, but my husband – who is at the same time bold and has bigger pockets – took six.”
Dr. Charlotte Russell, clinical psychologist and editor of the blog The Travel Psychologist, says rising room prices may be leading some guests to think hotel shower gel and tea bags are theirs for the taking.
“Some of us experience rising prices as ‘abuse,’” she says. “If people feel they are being exploited, they are much more likely to commit petty theft.”
Roz Colthart, a hospitality industry professional, believes that many hotel guests view their own petty theft as a source of pride: “People steal everything,” she says. “I once had a guest who proudly told me and my staff at Malmaison that she had built up a complete set of crockery and cutlery by stealing piece by piece from our hotels!”
While hotels are responding to the new predatory mood by searching rooms and bags for stolen items as guests check out, others are encouraging guests to better behavior by listing the cost of purchasing the portable items in the room. These include Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair, which offers guests the opportunity to purchase items from the Sir Paul Smith Suite, including £250 striped cushions and a three-seater sofa for £10,900 (try sneaking those through reception); Savoy Signature, which offers everything from £70 pillows to £172 shaving kits for you to purchase after your stay; and Patina Hotel in the Maldives, which lists all in-room items including water glasses (set of two, $39) and chopstick holders ($19) in the app, so they can be delivered directly to guests’ home addresses when they return from vacation.
It’s a commonplace gesture these days for spa hotels to post bossy signs warning guests that bathrobes, slippers and pajamas are not to be stolen, but can be purchased at on-site boutiques (see signs above, from the five-star Thai spa Chiva-Som). However, the rise of large refillable toilet bottles in hotel rooms for environmental reasons is causing the most common form of spending money to be abolished in many hotels: luxury shampoo and body lotion miniatures.
If you’re wondering what happened to that (now retired) TV-stealing hacker, he was picked up by the hotel doctor and marched back to his hotel room, still with the TV and towel in his hand, though the consequences were no more serious than a red face and a brutal attack. hangover. Martinis and a mattress next time, buddy?