Hi Dopers.
I don’t have much knowledge about this but I seem to recall that it was a semi-common practice to keep a robe or a towel or something when people stayed at a nice hotel. Not exactly legal but hotels turned a blind-eye to it, as I recall.
Where I live now it’s definitely not a custom, and I wonder if hotels have to make special accommodations for guests who come from overseas.
So is it common where you come from?
I don’t think it’s common, and I think it’s stealing. The fact that hotels can’t practically prevent it unless thievery drives them to search luggage hardly endorses it.
In real life, I don’t actually know of any examples of people taking these things. Not to say it doesn’t happen, but I know real examples of shoplifting and tax cheats and insurance fraud, all of which are easier to hide than towels and bathrobes.
Why not take the TV set too then?
Some hotels provide “souvenir packs” and others have a list of stuff you can abscond with gratis. I’ve stayed at both types of hotels. Ripping off a towel or robe that’s not in the souvenir pack or on the list of stuff you can take without payment is simply theft.
No, it’s stealing. You’d probably get away with stealing a bath towel because it’s hard for the staff to keep count of them (e.g. many people call and ask for extra towels during their stay, and/or a guest can take a towel from his room and leave it in the swimming pool or exercise room’s bin for dirty towels). But it’s still stealing, so shame on anyone who takes them.
Beach towels are so expensive that many resort hotels have implemented towel exchange programs. When you arrive, you’re given a card to give to the pool attendant for one set of towels. After that, you can only get a clean one if you exchange it with a used one.
As far as robes go, many hotels are dispensing with the white robes altogether under “Go green!” initiatives, but you can usually get them from higher end hotels for the asking. The only hotel that I’ve been to recently that still automatically provides them is the Ritz, and there are signs indicating that their robes are available for purchase for x dollars – a subtle but clear indication that they’re not yours for free.
I used to take the little soaps/shampoos/lotions that were in the bathroom and going back a LONG way I used to take an ashtray if it was a nice hotel stay and I wanted a reminder.
Now days I don’t travel much but I even when I did I would never take anything lie towels or a robe.
The last hotel I stayed in had great robes and there was a little sign in the bathroom that said
“To our guests - we’ve gotten many compliments on our robes. Please feel free to take one with you and we will be happy to add the $65 cost to your bill.”
I’ve stayed in conference hotels that have notices about how much the in-room bits cost (which will be charged to your bill after you leave and they conduct inventory to see what’s missing).
I’ve also seen signs in the rooms reminding people that the room will be inventoried, and that you will be billed for missing items; there’s usually a ticklist so that you can alert staff if your room is supposed to have, for example, a coffee maker, and doesn’t.
It is stealing. If you didn’t pay for it, but you took it, that’s stealing.
Even the Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons sells their bathrobes. They certainly don’t expect their consumers to make off with them and just because they may not aggressively pursue thieves doesn’t mean it’s not theft. The gift basket/souvenir packs are part of the package and that is usually pretty clear.
LOL @ Siam Sam: why not take the TV, indeed? Or the bedding, or the plumbing. Hey, it’'s in the room and I paid for it!
I don’t think taking the little soaps/shampoos/lotions is stealing as these are clearly yours to use for no additional charge. (Don’t touch that bottle of Evian though!) And since they rarely have seals to indicate if they’ve been opened and partially used, the maid should be replacing all of them as a matter of course.
As a former travel agent, I took many group trips with other agents all the time.
At one small hotel in Switzerland one time, we had all gotten on our bus to go to the next destination when two hotel employees came out and stopped us. They asked for Mrs. Smith from room 123 to come forward. They had inventoried our rooms and found things missing from hers. She had to get her suitcase out, lay it open in the parking lot, and return the towels, ashtray, and other trinkets she had taken as souvenirs. :smack:
I’m hard-pressed to think of something more embarrassing than having to get on that bus with everyone looking at you, knowing what you’ve done.
This is what I’ve seen also.
And in the back of my mind, I seem to recall being at a friend’s pool party where there was a pile of towels bearing the name of a hotel chain. I assumed they were procured via five-finger discount, but I may have been mistaken.
I’ve never stayed in a super-high-end hotel, so I don’t know what sort of pilferables may be there. But beyond keeping the tube of hand lotion, I haven’t helped myself to anything from any room I’ve had. Same as I wouldn’t lift the towels when I stay with my inlaws…
No, it’s not a common custom where I live. I’ve never done it over seas either.
ETA: Actually, I take that back. This summer my husband and I went on a cruise for the first time for our 20th. The steward would make wash cloth animals to leave on the bed at night. The last night it was a penguin. It was a adorable. When we got home I went and took a shower. When I stepped back into our room the little penguin was perched on my pillow.
My husband stole it. Probably shouldn’t have, but it was an absolutely sweet gesture.
A lot of hotels are now going to soap/shampoo dispensers instead of the bars and small bottles. I suppose a person could bring their own bottle and fill it from the dispenser, but that just reeks of ‘cheap asshole’ to me.
No, it’s stealing.
But I do remember, many moons ago, that my parents had a few of those Holiday Inn towels. The ones with the green stripe down the middle. Now these where not in any way luxurious. I suspect that an odd towel gets thrown into luggage once in a while, especially when traveling with kids (wet swim suits etc.).
Taken as a souvenir, if you only take one in your life, you get a pass. I doubt if anyone would make a fuss, if they knew that it was an isolated incident as a souvenir, and you were not making a practice of it to furnish your home or resell in the street.The room rate they are charging you is already inflated to account for such shrinkage.
When airlines used to actually serve food to passengers, I assembled a collection of spoons from about 20 different airlines. I once noticed that in tourist class we got plastic spoons, but in first classl they were silvere. I asked the stewardess (which was not an insensitive slur in they days when they fed you) if I could have a first class spoon as a souvenir and she handed me a whole wrapped set.
My sister still has the towel from a trip we took to Hungary in 1986.
They have souvenir shops were you can actually buy souvenirs, taking stuff is never ok.
No, it’s not okay. You can go to the front desk and ask to purchase a robe or the towels or whatever, but you can’t just take it, any more than you can go to Nordstrom’s and just take a shirt you like.
And inflated even more by people who think it’s OK as long as they “just take one”.
No, you don’t get a pass for stealing just once.
No, of course you can. It’s just like if the chambermaid takes a piece of jewelry out of your luggage as a keepsake to remind her of those nice people in room 818. If you don’t mind the one you shouldn’t mind the other.
I do collect the toiletries, because if they’re not replacing them for each guest, they should be. Those have never shown up on my bill. (I keep the toothpastes and shampoos and conditioners for traveling. The bar soap collects in a gallon bag in my bathroom; I use maybe three bars a year when I set it out for guests at parties, and the rest gets donated to the food pantry or to one of several festival grounds where I work First Aid).
But no, I’ve never intentionally taken a towel. Two have made it into the luggage by accident, and when I called to apologize and ask for their address to mail it back, I’ve been told not to bother and have a nice day. Not been billed for those either, but I don’t stay in high end hotels.