Staff reveal what you’ll get away with stealing from your hotel room

WE’VE all been tempted to swipe a fluffy towel or bathrobe. But what can you get away with, and will you ever get sprung?

WHETHER it’s a pair of embossed slippers, a sewing kit or a handful of shampoo miniatures, most people have slipped something into their luggage during a hotel stay.

But what actually happens if you do steal something bigger, like a bathrobe, fluffy towel or cushion?

It turns out, 99 per cent of the time nothing will happen at all, The Sun reports.

Hotel staff have been sharing the rules of their companies on the online forum Quora, and revealed most of the time, no action was taken against the offender.

That was mainly for two reasons: not only was it very hard to pinpoint which guest stole something, but many hotels also factor theft into their annual budget.

Teodor Birsa, who has worked at several hotels, said: “Nothing [happens]. If we catch them in the process and they refuse to return the property, we might let police handle the issue, but if the stuff isn’t of a particularly high value we just let them go.

“Or, if we see that something is missing after they leave, we view it as one of the normal risks in the business and forget about it.”

We’re not recommending you actually steal from a hotel, mind you.

Another member of hotel management, named Baijnath Pandey, said: “There’s hardly any way the hotels can find out if a guest has packed a towel or some small pillow, however, as a deterrent measure, hotels have their logo or name weaved in the towel.”

According to one member of the hospitality industry, most hotels now factored in a degree of thievery into their annual budget.

“Perhaps a decade ago, it was a real issue for hotels, but nowadays towels are mostly considered Operating Supplies and their replacements are very carefully planned for within budgeting,” Tyna Makpo said.

“A towel or pillow is an operating cost, the guest is the income.

“They’d rather consider it a sunk cost, which is why provisions for towels are somewhere around 200 per cent of the actual requirement.”

Even if you did get caught and charged for something you had stolen, you could probably weasel your way out of it, like account manager Gaby Martino who was billed for a bathrobe she stole.

“I stay at the Ritz Carlton every June with my family and a couple of years ago I decided to ‘borrow’ one, despite the sign hanging on the robe that clearly said ‘If you would like to purchase one, let concierge know’,” she said.

“I got a call from my dad about a week later to say that they had charged him $150, so of course I protested my innocence.

“My dad called the hotel and they apologised profusely for the ‘accident’ and took it off the bill.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.