Many people travel on a very tight budget and carefullyreview cheap traveloptions, including cheap airplanetickets, discount hotel rooms, and cheap vacation packages. While there is nothing wrong with doing yourbest to get the most out of your travel dollars, some people wonder what is OKto take from a hotel room where they have stayed.
Once a guest has paid for a hotel room that personsometimes feels entitled to the rooms contents.
Hotel owners have found that some people will steal justabout anything, ranging from bathrobes, coat hangers, bed linen, mattresscovers, towels, pillows, even toilet seat covers.
Hotels generally have no problem with guests leaving withtoiletries. It makes sense that itemsthat the hotel cannot reuse can be taken. Similarly small items with hotel logos, such as stationery, will not beoverly missed. In fact the hotels gainpublicity when guests use hotel pens in public.
Checking out of a hotel is not like going through anairport security checkpoint. Hotels donot open your luggage to search for what you might have taken.
Towels are viewed by hotels as items that guests should nottake. Despite a recent study found that68 percent of British travelers confessed to towel theft, the rule of thumb isthat items that hotels can and will be reused should not be taken out ofhotels.
Most hotels are more likely to blacklist a guest over apetty theft than notify the police and charge stolen items to their creditcard.
This is not the case everywhere. In Japan a young couple was arrested forstealing hotel bathrobes and an ashtray. In Nigeria a woman was sentenced to three months in prison for stealingtwo towels from the Transcorp Hilton Abjua Hotel.
One study found that among the items most frequently stolenfrom hotels were batteries and light bulbs.
The challenge for hotels is how to limit guest stealingwithout angering or embarrassing their guests. Higher end hotels, such as the Ritz Carlton, encourage guests topurchase items they like that are in their rooms either in the gift shop oronline.
A couple of years ago a few hotel chains attachedelectronic tags on their luxury linens, in order to monitor the whereabouts ofbed sheets and bathrobes. Guests whotried to leave hotels with such items ran the risk of being shamed when thealarm went off.
Ultimately guests should use good judgment in deciding whatis OK to take from their hotel rooms. When in doubt, ask the hotel.
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