by My career as a hotel thief ended in 2014 when the receptionist at a Bangkok hotel stood next to me while the four-star hotel concierge cautiously removed a pair of blue corduroy slippers from the bottom of my suitcase (he had convinced me that would not be reused). ).
Two years earlier, I had boldly stepped out of the Radisson Blu Chicago into the bitter cold of a windy January day wrapped in the hotel’s gray felt carpet. The doorman, agreeing that British urban coats are no match for -17 and shin-deep snow, forgave that assault on the hotel furniture.
Most memorable, however, was an incident of theft I witnessed in an English country house. The perpetrator was a drunken Fleet Street journalist and the object of his desire was a flat-screen television. This, the drunken scribe attempted to smuggle through reception under a white bath towel as horrified staff looked on.
These are not isolated incidents. A report released this week, commissioned by luxury hotel and spa guide Wellness Haven, surveyed 1,376 European hotel managers about the items most commonly stolen from their properties.
It found that towels, bathrobes and hangers were the most frequently stolen items, while consumables such as batteries and pens were most likely to be stolen in four-star hotels and luxury items such as iPads and artwork were most likely to be stolen. be stolen within half an inch of the five. -Star chases.
The most stolen items since a similar 2019 study include mini refrigerators, lamps and, surprisingly, hotel mattresses, while among the strangest stolen items highlighted by the report are: an entire sink (stolen from a hotel in Berlin ), a grand piano (trapped by men posing as fake movers in overalls in a hotel lobby in Italy), and room numbers (torn from a hotel room door by a determined guest in England) .
Meanwhile, German and British hotel guests are more likely to steal pedestrian items such as towels and bathrobes, while American guests rave about pillows and batteries. Italians prefer wine glasses as hotel souvenirs, while practical Dutch stock up on toilet paper at the expense of the hotel industry.
In a classic episode of Friends, Ross teaches Chandler the basics of undercover hotel theft: “You have to find the line between ‘stealing’ and taking what the hotel owes you,” Ross says while chastising Chandler for trying to recover $600. hotel bill with restaurant hotel pants and pepper shakers.
“Hair dryer, no! No! No!” he schools, “but shampoos and conditioners: Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Amelia Andrews, a wellness entrepreneur, says her family calls the casual theft of hotel toiletries “doing a Ross Geller.”
“The only thing we like to do is take things like body lotions out of the room,” the 51-year-old explains. “I’m not brave enough to steal anything like slippers or bathrobes.”
Writer Jill Davis, 45, sees a raid on in-room tea and coffee supplies and the breakfast buffet as a way to get bang for your buck. “I’ve been known to carry a bag to smuggle things out of hotel buffets,” she admits. “I once unpacked after staying the night to find that my husband and I had had the same idea of stealing mini jars of Nutella to take home as gifts for the kids. We had eight of them. I only took two, but my husband, who is both cheeky and has bigger pockets, had stolen six.”
Dr Charlotte Russell, a clinical psychologist and editor of The Travel Psychologist blog, says rising room prices could encourage some guests to think that the hotel’s shower gel and tea bags are theirs to have. .
“Some of us experience rising prices as if they were being taken advantage of,” he says. “If people feel like they are being exploited, they are much more likely to engage in behaviors like petty theft.”
Hospitality professional Roz Colthart believes that many hotel guests see their 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 an entire set of crockery and cutlery by stealing one piece at a time from our hotels.”
While hotels are responding to the new theft environment by searching rooms and bags for stolen items when guests check out, others are prompting guests to behave better by listing the cost of purchasing portable room items on lists posted on their walls. the room. They include Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair, which is offering guests the chance to purchase items from its Sir Paul Smith Suite, including striped cushions for £250 and a three-seater sofa for £10,900 (try smuggling it through reception); Savoy Signature, offering everything from £70 pillows to £172 shaving kits that can be purchased after your stay; and Patina Hotel in the Maldives, which lists all room items including water glasses (set of two, $39) and chopstick rests ($19) on its app to be delivered directly to guests’ home address. guests when they return from their vacation.
Nowadays, it is an everyday gesture for spa hotels to install bossy signs warning guests that bathrobes, slippers and pajamas are not to be stolen, but can be purchased in the hotel’s boutiques (see signs, above, of the five-star Thai spa). Chiva-Som). However, the emergence of large bottles of refillable toiletries in hotel rooms for environmental reasons is putting an end to the most common mode of bagging in many hotels: miniatures of luxury shampoos and body lotions.
If you’re wondering what happened to that TV thief (now retired), the hotel doctor stopped him and took him back to his room, still holding the TV and towel in his hand, although he suffered consequences no more serious than a face red and a brutal beating. hangover. Martinis and a mattress next time, friend?
