The light-fingered guest

Light bulbs, beer taps, DJ lighting, potted plants, a bejewelled Christmas reindeer statue and a life-size display mannequin are just a few of the uncanny items that independent hotel management company, RBH, says have been stolen by its guests over the years.

Hotel thievery is a notorious (and sometimes unavoidably comedic) issue that actually affects the hotel industry more than these light-fingered guests realise. In addition to the zanier items listed above, RBH says the top five most commonly pinched items that rack up the replacement bill include towels, pens, mugs, teaspoons and remote controls.

In an act of kindness (and mercy), RBH actually gave past guests the chance to “come clean” and return items they’ve “borrowed” from hotel rooms over the years, touting it as a “souvenir amnesty”. This took place throughout the summer, with customers being encouraged to hand in their “ill-gotten gains guilt and consequence free”. For every ‘souvenir’ that was returned to participating RBH hotels the group donated £1 to the worthwhile causes such as Make-A-Wish UK and NSPCC.

Commenting on the scheme Mary Curtin, group accommodation services manager at RBH, says: “Guests occasionally do like to help themselves when they are staying in our hotels, with towels and mugs the real favourites for ‘borrowing’. Every now and again though we do get a surprise, when some of the larger or quirkier fixtures and fittings are carried out from under our noses.”

But why is it such a prolific issue? And what can the industry do to prevent its light-fingered guests from eagerly taking whatever isn’t nailed down?

THE COST

Travelodge has over 550 hotels across the UK, and communications director Shakila Ahmed says: “If one guest takes a pillow each week at each of those hotels you are looking at thousands of pounds in costs across the whole company. That’s 550 pillows that need to be replaced.”

Even the beds aren’t safe, says Ahmed, as she recalls a time when a guest tried to make off with an entire kings size Travelodge ‘Dreamer’ bed…somehow. “They didn’t get very far,” she laughs, “and they actually ended up offering to pay for the bed”. The guest was directed to Travelodge’s online website which allows guests to buy the beds available at its hotels. It’s a strange scenario indeed, but Ahmed says the reason for the thefts often comes down to the value placed on a good night’s sleep. “For example sometimes guests have a really amazing nights sleep so they feel like the pillow they slept on is really worth something and want to take it,” she says.

Ahmed points to a few reasons for the phenomenon. The first is that a few people do it “for a joke”, sometimes the guests just really like the items, and other times it can just be down to “brand loyalty”, to the point where guests love the brand so much they want “a little souvenir to take back”. “I know for a fact that there are customers across the UK who have a set of six to 12 Travelodge mugs in their kitchen right now,” she says, adding that bigger properties suffer the most. “It’s about the scale of your company as well, when you have a big portfolio like we have it does add up,” she says. “At a smaller hotel it wouldn’t cost as much as there is less to replace.”

Fortunately, in the case of the Travelodge brand, there “isn’t a lot you can take really”. She notes that mugs and teaspoons are stolen quite often, which the group is constantly having to replace, and says she is baffled at how “quite generic plain white mugs” are still far too enticing to guests for some reason.

However, Robin Sheppard, owner of Bespoke Hotels, is more lenient on the thieves, saying it’s all “part of the theatre of hospitality”. “You want people to take little souvenirs away from the hotel,” he says, “because it’s a reminder for the guests of when they stayed at the property.”  In an admirably philosophical tone, Sheppard says: “You can call it ‘thievery’, but at the same time you can also call it ‘marketing’, and that there is a very blurred line between the two. It’s prevalent, it happens, but is it that much of an issue of hotels? I don’t think so.”

THE SOLUTION

Ahmed believes pinching guest may be under the impression the hotel company “can afford it”, or they think “it’s not going to cost the hotel that much”, but notes that every penny “does add up, as it’s an extra cost we have to take into proportion”. As a solution she says fines do work in a lot of cases – Travelodge has a policy that if a guest damages any of the rooms intentionally it will fine them a “massive amount” for the cost of repair. “We have had incidents where a guest has spilt paint on a brand new carpet or damaged the paintwork. So if someone does something intentionally we do fine them as that also does seem to work as a deterrent,” she adds.

Resident Hotel Owner columnist Angie Petkovic, a former hotelier, says an interesting solution she has seen when staying at a hotel was messages on the toiletries. “They did the most beautiful toiletries in full sized bottles,” she says, “but the hotel told me that about 40% of guests leave with the bottles.”

The messages read: ‘Please enjoy me while I’m here, but if I leave with you consider myself sold and you will be charged.’ Petkovic remembers staying at another hotel which had a very similar message on its dressing gowns, which read: ‘We appreciate that I am lovely to cuddle up in, but if you can’t leave me you will be charged.’

She says the main thing hoteliers need to do to combat hotel thieves is to “be braver”, either by confronting guests or actually charging their credit card. “In the past,” she says, “people would just pay in cash and you didn’t have an auto-credit card machine, but nowadays you can and providing you let them know your intention, by having something clearly stated on your website or in the property, guests need to know that if they steal, they will be charged. It will then be up to them to prove they didn’t.”

But in the end Petkovic says she has “no idea” what it is that makes people think it’s accetpable to take things from hotel rooms, and notes that the British are often the ones “who strip the rooms of things”. “We have had so many things stolen from my hotel when I was a hotelier. The pillows, the blankets, the quilts. I had a lot of curtains one year, beautifully lined curtains,” she adds wistfully.

She recalls a story from when she first started working as a hotelier. She was converting the rooms of her new property when she got a referral from another hotel to take on an important guest who needed to stay for four days. Petkovic remembers thinking at the time: “Bloody hell we need to get one of theses rooms straight.” She spent the week before the guest arrived preparing the room, visited Marks and Spencer to buy gowns, “big thick fluffy towels”, tea trays, teapots and mugs and a sugar bowl. “We put all of the items in the room, and then the guest came and ran rings around everybody,” she says, “and after she left, the housekeeper came to me and said there was nothing left. The gowns were gone, the towels were gone, the tea trays. Everything.”

Petkovic, laughing, remembers saying: “You have got to be kidding me.” She worked out that the guest lived around three hours away, and four hours later Petkovic phoned her and said: “Hi, it’s Angie from the hotel, how was your stay?” The guest replied: “Oh it was wonderful, it was marvellous, the staff were wonderful, everything was great.” Realising that the situation was quite delicate, she responded: “I think you might have packed a lot of things that belong to the hotel by mistake.” The guest replied by saying: “Oh no dear, not by mistake,” and then hung up the phone. Not a shred of remorse.