Hotel product theft on the rise

I remember seeing a very clever ad for a travel portal site several years back. Its slogan went along the lines of “Book your next trip quicker than it takes to steal the hotel mini soaps”.

I thought it was funny because it brought attention to something we all do but rarely admit to: steal trivial things from hotel suites that would otherwise cost us next-to-nothing to buy anyway.

Perhaps we see these items as souvenirs of our stays in exotic places? Or, indeed, we just want to get our money’s worth, assuming we could nick enough mini soaps, shampoos, conditioners and other toiletries to add up to the $200+ bill per night’s stay.

Suffice to say, it is a fact that hotel theft is on the rise, with a recent study by European travel portal Travel24.com revealing some remarkable findings.

Extrapolating on the survey results of 5,800 holiday makers, calculations have put the total damage from stolen hotel items throughout Europe at a minimum of approximately 37 million Euros.

Of course not all of this figure reflects toiletries stolen (although a whopping 69% of persons admitting to stealing from hotels have taken such items).

Stationery accounts for 34% of their contraband; towels 28%; shoes (including slippers) 16%; and mini bar accessories such as bottle openers and glassware a surprisingly lower 12%.

Despite hotel patrons thinking they have every right to take home items like notepad covers and hotel decorations, these are not meant to be taken away, conversely provided as items “on loan” to the hotel guest during their stay. Ditto towels and bathrobes.

Believe it or not, though, even televisions get nicked, with an estimated 46,000 TV sets said to get snuck out of hotel rooms every year.

Interestingly, the survey reveals academics and high-school graduates are the biggest thieves, and that 4-star hotels are particularly affected, possibly having something to do with the fact that amenities found in 2- and 3-star hotels are fairly crap, and that rich folk don’t have much need for such incidentals.

That said, I know a few affluent folk who admit they too are partial to a little hotel theft. After all, when an establishment like So by Sofitel in Mauritius presents its Kenzo products so impressively on its bathroom shelving, who wouldn’t want to call up room service to ask for more pretending they’ve “just run out”?  Antonino Tati

DID YOU KNOW?
When it comes to hotel product theft in communist Cuba, it is the cleaning staff who end up having to pay for items stolen, no matter how irrelevant to the theft these hard workers are.