The ethics of staying in hotels

Monday, 8th June 2009

Although most people consider themselves to be pretty moral and wouldn’t even consider stealing, it appears that this can change when checking into a hotel. Most hotels regularly find items missing from guest’s rooms.

While these are mostly small items such as soap and other toiletries, they can extend to bed sheets, irons, television remote controls and even the television itself.

It seems that many hotels expect their guests to steal certain items and check the room carefully after check-out time so they can be sure exactly what was stolen.

"We put a charge for the robe on a card if we can be absolutely sure someone took it, and didn't just pack it by mistake," says Leslie Lefkowitz, director of public relations for the Four Seasons Hotel in New York.

Other top hotels actually save their guests the hassle of having the steal by gift wrapping desirable items such as bathrobes and slippers and presenting them to guests.

People have their own ways of justifying stealing from hotels. Perhaps they think the price of the room was too high, or that the service wasn’t good enough. Maybe the staff at the reception desk were surly.

But however you justify it, these small thefts cost the hotel industry millions of pounds every year, and perhaps contribute to the rising price of hotel rooms, a price that everyone has to pay.

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