I was staying in 5-star hotel in Aix-en-Provence that had wonderful bathrobes, and there was a note on the robe saying that an anti-theft device (audio) had been sewn into the robe, so don't try stealing it or you will be embarrassed when a piercing shriek emits from the robe. Hardly necessary, as the hotel already has the guests' credit card and can charge the missing items to that. Amusing, though.

Some friends of mine stole some of those Pendleton blankets from Ace Hotel, got busted, had to pay for them and then one had some unexpected bills come up and sold me one at a fraction of what they ended up paying for them. Score!

"We've never taken more than the occasional mini bottle of shampoo (it's going in the garbage, anyway)"

Holland America Line donates all used/open soaps and shampoos from passenger cabins to local homeless shelters.

The toiletries are really nice - Elemis - I keep a huge stash from my cruises in my guest bathroom!

If they don't want people to steal them, they shouldn't make those bathrobes so damn nice!

I thought about stealing an umbrella from a hotel in Vancouver, but I really didn't want the $80 charge on my credit card.

I design hotels for a living. I have my installers glue everything decorative down in our lobbies. We had someone come into one or our historic properties and make an attempt to steal a bronze statue. He made a break for it on foot but realized it was too heavy to run with. He ditched it a block away. We have also had people cut oil paintings directly out of their frames. People amaze me sometimes.

I always thought of the toiletries as items you could take, so I never thought of that as stealing.

We borrowed our sheets during a stay once for a parade in Tucson (we wore them as capes!), but returned them the same night so we weren't charged for them.

I never dared to take anything from the hotel other than mini shampoo/conditioners and lotions. Those robes look pretty damn nice though..

Don't hotels usually keep a credit card on file? And, wouldn't they go ahead and charge the credit card if anything like those was missing from the room?

theft is not funny
nor
should it be considered a prank
i don't want my guest stealing from me
just as i wouldn't steal from them
it is wrong
and a cute euphemism won't make it right

This is why you always tip the cleaning staff well. That way they don't rat you out for 2 people in a double occupancy, smoking in a non-smoking room, or nicking a couple of robes.

the white hotel towels always come home with me, they're perfect towels to wrap your hair in since they're not too big and not too small! love em! Also, I keep all of the shampoos and conditioners to give to my boyfriend when he travels for work or we use them when on vacation if they're not already provided!

Healeygirl --

Your story reminds me of when we were aboard a maiden voyage a couple years back: The Sports Bar had a huge leather Baseball-mitt shaped chair at the entrance with a giant leather baseball pillow - Sure enough, before the cruise was over that baseball pillow was gone...

...then of course the staff can get out of hand as well - like the ship stewards who tossed a priceless tapestry off the QE2 into the Atlantic a couple years back.

But the funniest thing I ever saw was the little old lady struggling to roll a gigantic, heavy suitcase towards the gangway at the end of a cruise: Ship's security staff pulled her aside and requested she open her bag so they could conduct a search. It took two men to lift that bag onto the counter...
...and as she stood by looking on sheepishly, the staff pulled dozens of placesettings of ship's china and silverware along with budvases, glassware and trays from her bag: Apparently she had ordered room service throughtout the trip and had never returned a single dish or tray!

Fine, BrooklynJohn & nbateman, but please don't complain when prices for things/accomodations you purchase soar. You shouldn't mind paying for someone else's theft, since you are willing to have other people pay for yours.

I work at a hotel and on a regular basis they sell or give away old pieces of furniture, duvet covers, etc. I have a pair of beautifully worn pink wingback chairs that are my favorite pieces of furniture and the hotel sold them to me for $15 each. That feels like stealing : )

It is not theft to take the toiletries - in fact hotels are happy for you to take them and think of it as extra advertising when you're back at home and fondly remembering them as you lather up.

I have to agree about the toiletries - they were meant for the guest to use and take. I've never gotten charged for taking them and didn't see a rate jump right after.

If I found a hotel that got mad over one taking the tiny bottles of shampoo or the tiny soaps, well they'd be getting bad advertising from me and my friends. That's just petty.

My aunt actually stole the chairs from the hotel room they stayed in on their honeymoon! This was in the 1957 so I am not sure what kinds of precautions the hotels took then. As far as I know they got away with it. and just for the record... yes the woman is a complete nut job.

My great-aunt always managed to come home from her trips with hotel silverware in tow....I inherited some of those spoons and forks, and it's rather amusing. 60 years later. ; )

@clyn72, next time there is a sale or give away by your hotel, let us know!! =)

Taking the toiletries in your room isn't stealing, those are included in the cost of your room. If you don't use them you are losing money. Cleaning out the maid's cart of toiletries, however, is another story.

Elderly friends of mine were on a coach tour of Italy 'if this is Wednesday it must be Parma' one of the other oldies drank the contents of the mini bar and left without paying. About 30 minutes down the road the local police stopped the bus and arrested them. They all lost a day while the courier sorted it all out.

There is a hotel nearby that I just found out has a really nice saltwater pool. The door isn't locked or pass-protected, so if you go during operating hours, you can walk right in...

I don't know if it's stealing something, but I wouldn't mind using it on a hot day.

There were some pretty amazing items in that list/gallery. I was especially tickled by the irony of regular bedside Bible theft.

I'm embarrassed to say that I took a sticker that showed how to operate the shower. I have the same weird setup and was tired of having to explain it to everyone. So I put the sticker in my own shower.

I guess I got that gene from my father, who stole wooden hangers from the Grand Hotel at Mackinac Island while honeymooning there. His wife was mortified to find them in his suitcase when they got home.

A friend of mine took a small sign that said something about being charged for bath towels that you decide to take home with you. He put it in his own bathroom so his guests would get a chuckle.

my parents used to own a mom and pop little motel that frequently had the tvs stolen....until they engraved "stolen from the (name ) motel" on them....that stopped it pretty much.

While vacationing for a week on Jekyll Island, my friends and I were kicked out of our swanky hotel for making too much of a ruckus... one of the locals we had met on the island (and was helping with the ruckus) happened to be the son of the people who owned the far less swanky hotel next door, and he let us stay there for free - which turned into the entire summer! On top of that, we would all use the first (swanky) hotel's hot tub and pool every night after it "closed" because there was no fence separating the two hotels, and nobody ever said a word. Plus, we ate a free continental breakfast every day.

19 seems like a really long time ago.

I'm kind of creeped out by the hotel in the Telegraph article that apparently *re-used* sex toys (providing the guests didn't steal them). Those seem like items it would be better to sell outright.

this topic came up here on AT a year or so ago. I was as appalled then as I am now that some people think this is either okay or funny to do. If you wonder on your next trip why hotel prices keep going up and up, think about theft as one of the costs of doing business. Take your own bathrobe.

I never thought of the Bibles as theft- at least for Gideon bibles, they are placed with the idea that it's okay to take them- the Gideons will replace them.

My husband spent our last trip to the Royal Sonestra coveting the pillows. Fortunately, I work for a church, so I've got this sense of conscience that just doesn't let me nick anything beyond toiletries.

The Metropolitan in San Fran gives an awesome swag bag, though. I'd never dream of taking anything, when they welcomed me with this awesome bag of really neat stuff!

I'm with you, Charlotte. The casual attitude toward stealing from hotels smacks of self-absorption and entitlement.

And before someone tries trotting out that tired old "sticking it to The Man" justification, I call effing bs. There are constructive ways of advocating for fairness and rights (if you actually cared about that sort of thing), and stealing a fluffy bathrobe from the Marriott is not one of them. I'm sick of people trying to spin plain greed and laziness into some kind of humanitarian virtue.

I don't think it's theft when they have your credit card info and you know they're going to charge you anyway.

Everyone that has removed items from a hotel more than once knows that they don't always catch you and charge you. If they were caught the first time they probably wouldn't have stolen the next time. Towels, robes, etc. are not supposed to be included in the price of the hotel--but as mentioned the prices go up for everyone because of theft. You can't teach a child morals if you don't have them. You have to live an upright life too. Come on people!

About the stealing of bibles I always thought that the people who leave them consider it a success if they are stolen, maybe not? A bible is handy when you're doing crosswords.

i once heard that this one guy spent a few days in a hotel somewhere. Guess he has a weird attachment to the hotel carpeting...

He cut out and took a big piece of it! We found out when the hotel called the company asking for reimbursements.

I believe that both the Gideons and the International Bible Society are responsible for placing bibles in hotel rooms, and that they do so with the intention of bored or sleepless travelers picking it up and finding it engrossing enough to take with them.

Hotels also actually want you to take your shampoo with you. You'll notice that most hotel toiletry bottles now carry the hotel's branding on them -- they want you to see those bottles in the future and think of staying with them again.

I work at a hotel- and we have some weird stuff taken. Remotes, toiletries, towels, pillows, tvs... one couple took a toaster, microwave, and coffee maker. Seriously. All three appliances. We also had one older woman clear out the room- drapes, bedding, towels, robe, etc. When I caught her, she said to me "Well what do we pay the hotel for? Just to sleep in a bed?!" LOL
We had one lady also dig up a plant out by the pool- I watched her from the lobby then went to her door and asked her about it. She told me she hadn't done it. I said "Oh, that's good, because that type of plant up here tends to carry a lot of bugs in it, you know, in the petals and IN the stems- I guess it's the climate that makes it so good for bugs. And they bite like red ants. I'm glad you didn't take it- you'd get eaten!"
Then I went back to the desk. 5 mins later, she was tossing it in the trash out by the pool.
We do charge EVERYTHING taken except bibles, and toiletries. Some people even call and complain about the charge- like the time a guy took the coffee maker and universal remote- then called when he got his VISA bill and FREAKED out the extra charge- told me the coffee maker was crap anyways. You just have to shake your head at them, I guess....

I was at a wedding a couple of weeks ago in a hotel ballroom.

After a friend of mine was treated rudely by several members of the staff (seriously, I'll never go to that hotel again if I can help it), she made off with 2 tin creamers and a few coffee cups and called it justice.

For those of you who don't think it is stealing if the hotel charges your card for it, you should think about all the trouble and expense of itemizing, storing, charging for, and replacing stolen items. If you have a 200 room hotel and one in every 5 guests steals their bathrobe, you could be replacing about 120 bathrobes a week. I work in this business and I know of at least one hotel that decided not to have guest bathrobes for that reason. Nothing in the above post surprises me, because we've had guests steal absolutely EVERYTHING.

My dad and his college friends used to frequent the bar in a seedy hotel in the early 70's. One evening, they carried out a whole upholstered chair, and put it in one guy's room. The day he married, his wife objected to having it in the house, so he gave it to my dad. It still stands in their house today. My dad wanted to give it back, but the hotel had closed down.