It’s their fault if you have to leave a deposit when you check in. A towel here, a pillow there, but also an iron, a light bulb, a hanger, a hairdryer, a smart speaker, a coffee machine and of course the classic bathrobe: some customers mistake their hotel room for a store. To combat losses, brands are doubling their ingenuity… But they also willingly let certain objects get stolen.
While hotels tolerate (or even encourage, since they won’t be used again) that you take bottles of shower gel and shampoo with you, they deplore a growing ingenuity among some customers to leave with more than just hygiene products. In recent years, they have decided to sell some of these products online, to attach a price tag to them, or even to track valuable objects by GPS.
In an effort to ensure that hotels don’t turn into prisons, most have also stepped up security and monitoring of room access. With some effectiveness, according to Sean Hennessy, a professor of hospitality at New York University, who “There are probably fewer flights today than there were in the past”although no one keeps statistics.
“All these thefts end up being paid for by the thief-customer”says Peter Eckert, vice president of the Davidson hotel chain, who adds that thefts remain fairly rare in his experience. “If it shows, we pass the cost on to the room.”
Thieves are indeed sometimes caught red-handed. Lonny Wolfe, a former hotel manager, has perhaps the most surprising anecdote. He tells the story of a guest who once complained about his room, then the second room he had been loaned, then the third. Wolfe then realized that the Bible was missing from each of these rooms. On the surveillance cameras of the common areas, he spotted the man throwing them into various trash cans.
When flights advertise
And it doesn’t just happen in the rooms. In the lobby and common areas, televisions, air conditioners and other electronic equipment or accessories are also stolen. But we are talking about more premeditated acts, where more or less organized thieves manage to pass themselves off as repairers or staff members.
So hotels keep meticulous inventories to spot losses and identify the culprits as quickly as possible. Hospitality consultant Anthony Melchiorri admits that guests who leave with only a towel or washcloth are probably safe. “On the other hand, if you constantly take things, you will be made to pay for it.he says. And some companies are stricter than others.”
Thieves must indeed expect consequences. In 2010, a guest at a Nigerian hotel paid the price. He was fined $20 (18.4 euros) and sentenced to three months in prison. for the theft of two towels.
A famous scene from Friends, in which Ross and Chandler rob an innalso illustrates this attraction to (smaller) hotel thefts. “You have to find the line between stealing and taking what the hotel owes youRoss explains. For example, the hair dryer is no, no, no. But shampoo and shower gel, yes yes yes.”
In fact, hotels expect to lose some items. According to Peter Eckert, they even come to wish for it in some cases. A pen, a lotion or a small sewing kit adorned with the brand’s logo become good advertisements in their second life.
But over the years, the prize for the best anti-theft device has gone to… waste prevention. While shampoos and shower gels used to be made available to customers in single-use bottles, they are increasingly being poured into a bottle attached to the wall to reduce plastic waste. This is a very unexpected side effect of ecological awareness.
Source: www.slate.fr
