No. You don’t. It’s stealing.
What, sarcasm on this message board? I’ve never seen that before.
My grandparents had some hotel ashtrays. They always claimed the logo on them was advertising. Like matchbooks and ok to take.
I used to collect matchbooks from restaurants and hotels. These days many no longer offer them with their name and logos.
I’ve never even considered taking a towel or robe. Thats stealing.
These days, the hotel is likely just to charge your credit card on file if they find large items like robes or towels missing.
Some hotels even include the (inflated) prices for such in the hotel information packet.
I used to like having souvenir ashtrays from hotels I stayed in, back in the old days when they had real glass ashtrays. I always asked if I could take one or buy one. Usually they said take it. One of them (Beaux Arts, NYC) charged me $1 for it.
Every place I stayed that has robes has also had a note that you can buy a robe from the gift shop or just take it and be charged. I appreciate having a robe in the hotel for sure, since that’s one less thing I have to pack, but I never thought they were THAT nice.
The only bedding I was ever tempted to take was at a Doubletree and it wouldn’t have worked as what I wanted was the actual bed, along with all the linens. I still want that bed!
I think they are resigned to people getting away occasionally with a washcloth or towel, but there is a reason that the TV, lamp, makeup mirror etc. are bolted down.
Chefguy: It’s “Mr. Mojo Risin”–not “workin’.” Anagram of Jim Morrison.
I’m not sure why anyone would want to steal hotel towels. In the last decade I’ve mostly found thin, scratchy towels in the hotels I’ve visited. Heck, Walmart has bath towels for $2-3 each that are better than most hotel towels.
If you’re serious about that, check the website. Many hotels offer the bedding (including linens) for purchase. It’s not the cheapest way to buy a new bed, but at least it’s one that you’ve actually spent a night or two sleeping on, unlike the mattress you laid on for two minutes in a mattress store.
All the high end places we stay at (and there are several) have generic white towels. I haven’t seen a branded towel in decades. I’m sure they did that to prevent people from swiping them. What’s the point of stealing a towel that anybody could buy at Target?
But the only thing we come home with from the room is all the soap and shampoo. The stuff from Palazzo Las Vegas is nice.
Huh. I did not know this. In my defense, I’m not a huge doors fan and they were before my time.
Totally. I really liked the bed in the Hilton I was at earlier in the month, and they do sell it online on their “Hilton to Home” website. Unfortunately, I do not like the bed 2k worth.
Plus it loses something knowing you’re the only one who sleeps in it. 
There is a song titled “I’ve Got My Mojo Workin’.” Very likely the (subconscious) source of the mix-up.
I stay at the 5 star Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs every summer. I don’t think they have a lot of casual thieves staying there because of the security and atmosphere but they make it subtly and perfectly clear how they handle this type of thing. You are the guest and can have virtually anything in the hotel that you want but you will pay for it if you take something and it will not be cheap. You can use the robes they provide for you in your room as long as you stay there and you can even take them home with you if you want but it be $135 and they will be used. You can buy the new ones in the apparel store and they will ship it home for you (they really are nice robes even for the money).
If you really like your hotel bed, sheets, towels or even the TV take it with you. They will be happy to charge you for it but you would probably be better off getting their concierge service or web site devoted to such purchases to get you a brand new one and ship it for you.
The same thing goes with that pretty painting on the wall. Fork over half a million dollars at the front desk and just throw it straight into your luggage. They are happy to oblige. The only things that you can keep for free, as noted, are the toiletries that are replenished daily. Those are yours to keep for free (well, included in the cost of your expensive room anyway).
If you like really hotels like the Broadmoor or just have a fetish for fancy hotel stuff in general plus an excess of cash, they have a web site devoted to making sure you get exactly what you need. You can also ask the personnel on site about buying anything they have. After you have paid for it, they will even get someone to pack or load it for you.
http://bshop.esitetoolbox.com/
Oh, they knew it was a great bed, and all the info on where to purchase it was right there in the drawer of the bedside table.
Unfortunately we had just bought a new bed about a year before.
The next time I’m in the market for a new bed (which will be soon, I think), I may just go to another Doubletree and see what they’ve got. It’s a plus to see if you can actually sleep in it.
You’d never believe the compliments I get on the lovely prints hanging on my walls. Little do they know . . .
No it’s not ok.
However, I’ve been known to keep a small towel after I used it to clean my windshield and got it especially dirty. If they catch me and charge me that’s fine. The last thing I want to happen is to get charged for excessively dirtying a towel and not get anything for it.
I think this was true for a while in the 70’s. Everybody had Holiday Inn and other hotel towels, it was just normal. The towels were all branded and it was assumed that the advertising was worth it to them. I would expect to see five or six of them on a busy Summer Saturday at the pool. (And this was a country club, so not people who ‘need’ to steal anything.) The towels were by no means comparable to the bath towels anybody would buy for home - they were scratchy, thin and a bit smaller than normal.
I’m not certain exactly when the change occurred, but certainly by the time I was traveling for work (early 90’s) I wouldn’t have considered taking one, and they were much nicer and without logos.
In the past I have worked as a houseman at a better hotel. Part of my job was counting the linen every day, in and out, and keeping track of the ‘lost’ towels and such. Our hotel sent most of linen out to be cleaned so that step, squaring what comes and goes, was important. In the case of my hotel, we didn’t even own the towels so every one that was missing had to be paid for. It was a daily expense.
Taking the linen or most any other durable item from a hotel room is straight up theft. The fact that most places don’t bother charging their customers with the petty crime doesn’t make it right.
Yes- the amenities (soaps, etc) are OK. A Pen is likely OK too. Ask for anything else.
First Oreida = Oregon + Idaho and now this. :smack: