Some people consider it fun to luxuriate in hotels when they travel — to enjoy the cozy bathrobes and linens, to indulge in the bath soaps and toiletries, and to even revel in that high-powered hairdryer. Many, it turns out, feel they can take those and other items with them when they check out. A recent survey conducted by Deluxe Holiday Homes, a vacation rental operator, revealed which items get stolen the most from hotel rooms, based on interviews with 1,239 hotel staff. These employees weighed in on which items they had seen vanish (there one day, gone the next) or “heard about being stolen.”
Not surprisingly, hotel towels get lifted the most, with 88 percent of the survey participants saying they’ve discovered missing towels. Bathrobes come in second, with 66 percent of respondents noting their disappearance.
“Sometimes guests think the bathrobes are free to take, but that’s never true,” according to a spokesperson for Deluxe Holiday Homes. “They are actually quite luxurious items, costing hotels at least $50 each.”
Apparently, about one-third of the time, travelers walk off with blankets and pillows (reported as happening by 36 and 32 percent of hotel staff, respectively). Those seem like bulky items to conceal while slipping out the door, but some people are determined, and that loss can cost a hotel $75 to $100 per blanket, according to the spokesperson. Handy hangers also prove popular — 685 survey participants, or 55 percent of hotel staff, saw these disappear — and a hefty 27 percent of survey respondents noted that hairdryers get stolen by guests.
Now, I thought, as you may have, that pens left on the desk or nightstand and toiletries — such as soap, shampoo, and ear buds — are generally considered complimentary items for guests. Not always, according to some hotel owners. The survey revealed that 53 percent of hotel employees report that guests steal toiletries, and 22 percent help themselves to pens. Maybe a little sign clarifying what’s free to take — or not — might help?
“Hotel theft costs the industry around $100 million annually in the United States alone,” says the Deluxe Holiday Homes spokesperson. “Part of the issue is confusion about what guests can actually take home. Things like branded pens or mini soaps feel like freebies, so people assume they’re meant to be kept. But there’s no confusion about blankets or bathrobes.”
Next time you visit a hotel and have the urge to leave with more than you came with, consider asking hotel staff which items are truly free to take, and leave the (obviously hotel-owned) big items behind. www.deluxehomes.com
This app has expanded its Risk Alerts and trip-planning features
We all know travel can be unpredictable. That’s why it helps to have an app that monitors breaking news and lets us know if a situation along our route could affect our hotel stay, train travel, car rental, or planned activities — not to mention our airport access and flights. TripIt Pro, the paid version of this travel organization app from SAP Concur, has expanded its Risk Alerts feature to include these types of details, so travelers know about potential glitches on their journey.
With a TripIt Pro subscription, you can forward email confirmations for flights, car rentals, hotels, and other travel plans to plans@tripit.com (from your verified email address) and then the TripIt system populates the app, enabling you to keep all the details of a trip in one place. This makes it easy to quickly look up trip plans when you’re on the go. It also enables TripIt to alert you if there’s a security incident at a related airport, a power outage at your hotel because of weather, or civil unrest along your planned route, for instance. It can even alert you to crowd management issues at major events, such as the FIFA World Cup.
New for Apple users with built-in Apple Intelligence on their devices: You can turn photos or PDFs of tickets, reservations, and other bookings into categorized and usable information. TripIt Pro can extract key info from those photos or PDFs, including dates, times, locations, confirmation numbers, and prices, and organize them. Android users will have to wait for this technology to be released, but stay tuned. $49 annually (30-day free trial). www.tripit.com
Kari Bodnarchuk can be reached at travelwriter@karib.us.
Kari Bodnarchuk can be reached at travelwriter@karib.us.