When you add up all the items being taken from hotel rooms across the world every year the figures are simply staggering. Sticky fingers know no race or reason, it’s a worldwide phenomenon. And the list grows even more bizarre with each passing season.
In the UK a couple of people have been nabbed while trying to check out with the mini bar in tow. Some have folded and compressed entire duvets and pillows into bags that were previously empty and brought for that very purpose.
A questionnaire was passed out among varying members of the populace to find out why so many people were pilfering. 90% of those polled felt they were entitled, a few of those said they believe the hotels were overpriced anyway and taking stuff was their way of getting even.
In response to that please remember the beverage adverts that say ‘Content only’. No matter the price hike I have yet to see anyone swallow a coke bottle whole. So why take something that was provided as convenience to all not just you? And no matter how you put it, taking without permission is stealing in the eyes of the law.
Towels-
The softest, plushest, most self-indulgent and absorbent towels are often found in a sheikh’s’ bathrooms and in most hotels. I suppose that’s why this is one of the most popular items to get pilfered. If only the guilty stopped to consider how many people may have used the towel before them.
Bathrobe-
Always handy to have when you have a guest and don’t want to run around in the towel that barely covers your bits. Popular reasoning is that the rack price is too high so some spendthrifts just wait till that rare vacation to get one with a monogram on the chest.
Cutlery-
Since the good old days when most hotel cutlery was made from the finest silverware there had been incidents of people slipping the loot into trouser pockets and handbags. Even the hotel staff couldn’t be trusted. Nowadays silverware is antiquated and only used in the very highest circles of hospitality. Mostly modern cutlery is made up of stainless steel, comes in the pre-approved design and embossed with the hotel’s insignia. That doesn’t stop guests from taking them though, in fact when you visit some folk you’ll notice the mismatched sets they have. Growing up one aunt always served me with a ‘Nigerian Airways’ fork.
Stationary –
We’re talking letter headed paper, envelopes, writing pads, pens, pencils and files. Before the advent of emails everyone sent letters; the fancier looking the better. None were quite as fancy as the letters written on hotel stationary. Made from the very best paper with the hotel’s logo prominently placed at the top of each page. The same went for the envelopes, writing pads and branded pens. Originally a means for long term guests to communicate with colleagues, family and friends; now used as a doodle pad for the groceries and evidence that the looters/guests had stayed there.
Linen-
These are basically the tablecloths, bedsheets, pillowcases, duvet covers of unparalleled quality found in most high end hotels. Cool to the touch and irresistible to sticky fingers the world over.
Toiletries –
From the hairnets, tiny soaps and bath beads to the little bottles of bubble bath, shampoo, body lotion and eau du toilette. It’s like putting a child in a candy store the size of the toiletries makes them easy to pinch. The lifters always smuggle them out in the most ingenious ways, in their shoes, jacket pockets or rolled into their dirty underwear. Unfortunately for them, the quantities of the stolen items were always meant for a day’s use. And the hotels’ housekeeping units always have plenty more stored away.
Bedside clocks/radios –
I feel like the clock-radio is a relic of a bygone age when things like that were a novelty. Today your smartphone can have a thousand and one features least of which are a clock and radio all rolled into one portable bundle. The kleptomaniacs who strike at hotels don’t share my views and still take this item along with everything else as soon as they are ready to checkout.
Flip flops –
They come in different shapes and sizes, sometimes with the hotel’s logo prominently monogrammed on them. I really wish I had a clue as to why these get stolen too given how cheap they are in the retail market but I just don’t.
Miscellaneous-
And here are a couple more things that turn up missing in many different hotels around the globe. Restaurant menu cards, batteries, waste bins, bathroom scales, clothes hangers, duvet covers, magazines and in rare cases AC/TV remotes.
Quite literally, if it isn’t nailed to the floor it’s been stolen from a hotel before.
