Is it Stealing?
 

Another survey.

During a recent hotel stay, I took the tissue box (not the dispenser or fancy wall unit holding the box) from my hotel room for use on the remainder of my trip. Since most people don't have an issue with taking the shampoos, soap or other toiletries that the hotel makes available, and which I consider part of the cost of the room, I thought nothing of it.

When my trip was finally over and I was unpacking, my partner saw the box and suggested that I "stole" the tissues, since they were for my use while in the room. I know, lighten up, but I insisted that since I considered them for my use, and for the taking as a hotel guest, it was no different than taking the sewing kit. I saw no issue with it.

It's really more of a joke at this point, but do others agree that it could be considered stealing?

Not much different than taking the shampoo or other "consumable" room amenity, IMHO. Since you needed it, I'm certain your hotel would be glad that you could use this on the rest of your trip. That's why they call it the hospitality industry.

I once asked a maid if I could have one from her cart for a long drive I was headed out on. She was happy to give it to me.

I guess you have to ask if the hotel would have charged you for the item if they knew you took it. In this case the answer is almost certainly "no".

If you want to feel guilt free, next time just call the front desk and tell them you need the darn thing and ask if you can take it. But frankly I think they'll think you're a bit overboard to even ask on this item! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Raffy,

You can sleep with a clean conscience. And the two lamps that I took from my last hotel stay look great in my livingroom (just kidding).

Tonight, during dinner, I looked my my water glass and realized that it had the Westin logo. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif

Tissue boxes are not as bad as towels or tvs. If I need one, I do take it.

And If I'm lucky, the maid's cart will be standing right outside full of goodies...

timchen .. tv's?? come on .. lool
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how about the whole bed

haa haa haa

If I had a shampoo bottle for every night I have spent in a hotel I would be the largest rebrander of Shampoo in the world.

I take soap, for use at hotels that supply crummy soap, especially from places that wastefully replace the soap every day.

But I also know people who take the unused replacement rolls of toilet paper, to use at home. That's a little tough to defend.

Don't feel guilty. I know a counselor who used to spend school holidays working at a very toney hotel in Naples, FL. She related how the hotel EXPECTED the guests to take the soaps, leatherbound stationary folder, etc. Tissues would be a very minor item.

If I imagined myself a hotel property manager, and a guest called to ask me for permission to take a box of tissues, I would say, "Please, help yourself," and probably think afterward, "What, do they think this is some kind of a tissue-box museum?"

The stuff is there to be used!

"leatherbound stationary folder?"

My wife actually scolded me for taking a pen with the hotels name on it! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

You'd think I'd have taken home the bed! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

of course its stealing --
the amount they charge for those rooms --
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[This message has been edited by magic111 (edited 07-04-2000).]

My confession. Once we were staying at the Plaza in NYC and all of us (business trip) received a very nice crystal vase from our manager as an appreciation gift. To protect it on the trip home I wrapped it in a bath towel. The other managers I was with did the same and we all expected the hotel to charge us for the towels. I thinkk we even went as far as telling them we were taking a towel. They never did. Of course at the prices they charge for a room maybe they don't worry about these things.

Just remind her that they WANT you to take the pens. It's a small billboard promoting their hotel.

And if your still feeling guilty about taking anything not bolted down, do what I do and donate all that soap, shampoo, etc. to your local church or soup kitchen. They can make great use of it. I "give" them a shopping bag full of stuff every couple of months and they are certainly happy to receive it.

You are a crook, I should know!

Let me make this perfectly clear. I am not a crook. Hey, where did that Hilton bath towel come from?

Last month I visited the unclaimed baggage center in Scotsboro Alabama. They sort items that are in peoples lost luggage for sale. There is a whole department that sells the hotel amenity items (soaps, shampoos sewing kits etc). They sort them by hotel brand and when they hav alot they package and sell them. You can buy a package of about 75 hotel soaps for $2.00. There must be a lot of people collecting these items if they can stock a whole department based on the pickings from just the lost luggage.

Jay

Yes, even I take something from the hotel rooms.

I take the little bottles of mouthwash so the next morning I can wash out that morning breath of cigars and beer.

As for the tissues... considering the hotel probably paid like 25 cents a box for them I see no problem.

During my recent trip to Germany, over half the hotels I visited have done away with the individual bottles, and now dispense liquid soap and shower/shampoo gel from fixed wall dispensers. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Re: toilet paper, on a past tour when we were planning to cross by ferry to Morocco for six days, our tour manager asked us to take an extra roll from our rooms in Spain, to be on the safe side. It came in handy at the mid-morning rest areas with no paper...

I ran this past a friend, who came back with an interesting reply: She would consider it inappropriate to take an entire unopened box of tissues, but she had no problem wirh taking most of the individual tissues out of said box, leaving a few as a 'signal' to the housekeeper to replenish the supply for the next guest.

Just been reading Pico Iyer's latest book "The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls and the Search for Home" and boy does it resonnance our lives...

He starts a chapter on rootlessness among a whole new class of professionals who are frequent flyers -- not to be confused with "Jet Setters" -- with a description of what he found in the Hong Kong apartment of friends he was staying with:

"When I went into the guest bathroom to splash some water over my face -- I hadn't yet come down to earth -- I found some Thai Air hair treatment next to the sink, and a bottle of La Quinta Resort & Spa moisturizer. There was a Delta business class toilet kit nearby, as well as a British Airways towlette and some Princess Cruises French formula shampoo. Otherwise, nothing whatsoever, except for some toothpaste from some Imperial Hotel."

Now doesn't that describe the guest bathroom in most of our own homes, or what?

A must-read for most of us who visit these fora!

In the July 2, NYT Magazine THE ETHICIST declares that taking the soap bars from a hotel and donating them to a shelter is "taking advantage." Hmmmm. If I use it, or take it home and give it away, how is this taking advantage?

I wouldn't take the toiletries and donate them for the ethicist's "taking advantage" reasoning, and also because it amounts to saying that hotels are somehow responsible for supplying our homeless shelters.

As for kleenex and toilet paper, I'm the opposite: I bring my own! Chronic sinusitis means I use a lot of the former, and I've found the three-ply versions hold up a lot better in my pockets than most hotels' (cheap) 2-ply. As for toilet paper, my favorite hotel in Paris is perfect except in this provision; I decided long ago it was easier to bring a roll with me (which I leave in the room instead of carting it home) rather than search for a "better" favorite hotel (at the same low price)!

Aren't we humans wierd? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

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At $100-200 a room nite in most major cities, the tissues are pretty much built into that price methinks!

The hotel chain that decides to stock all known brands of toilet paper and lets guests specify their preference on check-in will instantly gain major market share, methinks. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

If we justify a $100 to $200 room being worth a box of Kleenex....

Airline tickets are usually more: what are thoughts on airline blankets and flatware?

I cherish my metal Air Canada spork.... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Airlines may be guilty, too: I was served a US Air glass in Continental FC. They say it was a catering mistake, but....

[This message has been edited by Viajero Joven (edited 07-05-2000).]

My one regret is that I never had the guts to swipe those adorable airplane-shape Salt and Pepper shakers in VS Upper . . . . .

Hey Non,

As one VS FA told me on a recent IAD-LON flt
in UD class, "Oh go ahead, everybody does."
Turn 'em over and you'll find the statement,"Pinched from Virgin Atlantic."

So, they sit on my kitchen table!

[This message has been edited by tvl4free (edited 07-05-2000).]

Kind of Omni story:
Several years ago I was on a "girls trip" with 3 women friends. We stayed in one hotel room so had the continuous problem of not enough towels. (4 women=many towels).
We kept calling the front desk and asking for more. They continued to provide us with the minimum 4 each day. We called each day, spoke to housekeeping & asked to get a couple more than 4.
Finally on the 4th day there, we came back to our room in the afternoon, to find the bathroom literally overflowing with clean towels. It was hilarious. I have pictures. There were 35 in all. They had them stacked to the ceiling & crammed in every corner.
Obviously a hotel staff with a sense of humor......