Photo by Baptiste Sibé
We all love going on holiday. It gives us the chance to sit back, relax, and umm… help ourselves to items belonging to our hotel. For some reason travellers turn into thieves the moment they check into their hotels, and we’re not just talking about the luxury toiletries.
Most of the larger hotel chains are more than happy to sell their guests items such as monogrammed towels and high end spa products, but why pay when you could get it for free, right?
Here are some of the things hotel guests like to ‘accidently’ pack into their suitcases before checking out. Some of the contraband is fairly normal and some is downright strange!
The ordinary
Talk to anyone who’s worked in a hotel and they will regale you with tails of guests that stole everything that wasn’t nailed down. Items such as slippers, coat hangers, alarm clocks and full sets of bed linen regularly find their way into a guest’s bag.
Other standard items to pinch are cushions, mini bar contents, bathroom display trays, and towels.
The odd
Some crafty guests have moved beyond claiming the more everyday hotel items as their own. Their tastes are slightly more particular and include televisions, taxidermy animals, carpets, and even a grand piano in one American hotel!
Curtains, mirrors, light fittings, crockery, and statues are also among the things that a more adventurous thief might help themselves to during their stay in a hotel.
What do they leave behind?
Well most hotel thieves simply leave an empty spot where their pilfered item used to be, but other hotel guests seem to be suffering from amnesia when it comes to their belongings.
We’ve all heard the stories of keys, mobile phones, important documents, and even the odd sex toy being left for the housekeeping team to find. However some hotels have been lucky enough to find far more interesting goodies in their rooms.
Here are a few of the best:
- A pantomime horse
- Four Power Rangers outfits
- 200 masks of the Queen’s face
- A Persian Chinchilla kitten worth £600
- An entire trunk of Cadbury chocolate bars
- Joseph’s Technicolor Dreamcoat
- A Royal python
- Breast implants
- A bowl of live crabs
However it isn’t all doom and gloom for forgotten items. In 2012 staff at hotel chain Travel Lodge reunited 76,500 lost teddy bears with their upset owners. Now that’s what we call good customer service!
So what can I take home from my hotel?
We’re not encouraging you to go and clear your hotel room of anything that takes your fancy, but there are a few items that are acceptable to slip in your suitcase.
Lotions and potions, stationary, single serving snacks, and Gideon Bibles are all things that you’re pretty much expected to help yourself to. However it’s probably best to keep your hands off the towels, bathrobes, laundry bags, and works of art.
So keep this guide in mind next time you go on holiday, and stay away from that grand piano!
Rob Rudd writes for several lifestyle websites. When he isn’t writing he enjoys relaxing with his family on the south coast of the UK. He doesn’t stay in hotels often but when he does he finds the bathrobes especially hard to resist.
