I too have many hotel hand towels in my bathroom -- but I bought and paid for each of them at the hotel gift shop because I like collecting them. I hope people don't always assume that anytime they see a hotel towel in someone's home it was stolen!

If they make one to fit you, they must have one that fits me :p

Bart: Uh, say, are you guys crooks?
Fat Tony: Bart, um, is it wrong to steal a loaf of bread to feed your starving family?
Bart: No.
Fat Tony: Well, suppose you got a large starving family. Is it wrong to steal a truckload of bread to feed them?
Bart: Uh uh.
Fat Tony: And, what if your family don't like bread? They like... bath robes?
Bart: I guess that's okay.

I have a couple robes from various casinos in Vegas and Atlantic City. They are really nice and plush. I'm proud to say that they were all given as comps for blackjack winnings. Unfortunately, I've paid for this "free gift" a couple times over on recent trips back to the casinos :mad:

If the item in the hotel is meant to be used by the next person using the room, taking it is theft. Thats why soap and shampoo is ok while towels, pillows, and robes are not.

The issue of entitlement in lieu of what one paid for the room is moot. For those who claim, "I paid x for this hotel room, so I'm owed that robe" - may I point out that when this game is played by the other party, its weakness is soon exposed. For example, would you accept the hotel's insistence that even at $1000 per night, you are still getting a bargain according to what their rack rates are, and thus they are entitled to ransack your luggage for souvenirs? (They did soooo admire your laptop, say, that they just HAD to have it....)

Bottom line: One contracts for that which one contracts; subsequently upping the ante, and maintaining that an implied contract exists where none did, is rationalization and manipulation of the kind I have usually encountered only with my guilt-tripping mother: In that case, she did not say " I paid X dollars/years to raise you, therefore I am entitled to x, y, or z", rather, her ploy took the form of, "But what are children for?" This was her typical ploy, upon being told, say, that my weekend plans had unfortunately been made some time ago. I maintained that I did not know that because I had been taken to the beach on July 16, 1965, that this bound me to provide x or y on a specific date 40 years later. (Don't get me wrong: I don't begrudge the lady such services as I can provide for her and I enjoy her company, but I do not accept any insistence that when my plans conflict with hers, that this constitutes some kind of contractual default on my part.)

2)The suggestion that anything with a logo on it is a form of advertising and thus meant to be taken raises some interesting implications about all those items marked:

"By Appointment to HRH (Prince of Wales/Duke of Edinburgh/The Queen/Insert Royal name here)" :)

To the OP: quite possibly you felt disturbed enough by the incident to seek reassurance. Look, I can't justify your taking the robe, but I can maintain, if only as a matter of statistical likelihood (as I don't know you personally) that you are very likely not a felon in the making, etc., just one who seeks to have his logic validated (or not) in a world where the word 'gift' has been misused. (What in heck is 'free gift' as it is used, or rather misused by so many commerical parties today, supposed to mean? Isn't a gift, by definition, free, and isn't its status as a gift supposed to be clear by virtue of the behaviour exhibited by the benefactor at the time the gift is formally presented? But I digress...)

Now, go and buy that robe next time you're at the hotel.

This is one of the funniest threads I have read in a while!! ^

In a business magazine last year, an article about this topic discussed how luxury hotels deal with this situation: in the article, as I recall, it was stated that Four Seasons Hotels will gently inquire of a guest, (after checkout, in a letter, I think):

"Dear Guest, Have you mistaken the __________ (i.e. robe, lamp, armoire) as a guest amenity?"
Apparently, hair dryers, television remotes, and robes are some of the things to go "missing."

So, I have a confession to make.

I've never taken a bathrobe or towel, because (1) it is stealing; (2) it's not very classy.

However, some years back my wife & I were staying at the Hotel Zurich/Zurich Marriott (it changed names around that time).

The hotel has air conditioning and heat, but the windows could not be opened. My wife prefers an open window. Everytime we got back to the room, she would call down to the desk and ask that the windows be opened. About 10 minutes later, someone would come by with The Crank That Opened Windows.

We were staying a number of days, so this happened quite often. One time, The Crank was left behind (accidently).

My wife hid The Crank in her luggage, so it would be available when we needed it, and wouldn't have to call down.

We eventually left and flew back to the States. When we unpacked, we realized that we still had The Crank.

We considered sending it back, but we were hard-pressed to explain the whole thing. It is pretty heavy, so it might be expensive to ship. And I'm not sure how we would do the customs declaration.

So, we still have The Crank. Maybe I'll remember to take it back next time I'm in Zurich.

Imagine all of those guests in Zurich having to live through stuffy rooms all because you have the crank ;)

I think that slippers are fair game, pens and stationary are okay to take and clearly bathroom amenities are good to go.

Towels, Bathrobes and COATHANGERS are NOT! Seriously, do people steal coathangers?? Why do most low to mid-level hotels feel a need to have those annoying coathangers that you have to fiddle with to re-assemble them into a coathanger? I am surprised no one has mentioned their collections of coathangers! :D

I agree with my lawyer colleague a number of posts above that the crime has been made out!

When I first started seeing those things whenever that was I figured that yes, indeed, people must be stealing the coathangers. Sheesh. Anyway, I found a new trend recently which is instead of having those stupid two-part hangers with the tricky hook they have hangers with really small standard loops and a small diameter bar to hang them on. This seems to be a decent solution, although if you have that wire rack-style Closet Maid stuff at home without standard size bars those hangers with the shrunk down hooks would probably still fit. :D

my firm asks us to always take the toiletries because they collect them for the homeless

we have a lot of homeless in atlanta

Sorry to re-hash an old thread, but just came accross an article in the IHT about "acquiring" souvenirs from hotels and getting all the acutrements of one's favorite hotel rooms from the towels to the floors. I was reminded of this old thread where I took quite a beating.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/...es/rluxhot.php

On top of that, it is from LHW. And if one remembers, I was at the Amigo in Brussels when I wanted their nice robe, but duly was told bathrobes are off-limits to take as souvenirs.

This seems like the solution then! :D Buy it! Next time...

It also seems hotel chains like Ritz-Carlton, Hilton etc. actually sell their stuff online even.

Yes, there appears to be a subtle difference between buying and stealing.

Putting on my former hotel manger hat here, I can tell you that isn't really the case. Hotels, like any other business, build their costs into the price, but they don't 'expect' or condone theft.

Guests are welcome to take consumable items such as shampoo, pens, pads, etc. from the room.

But how anyone could consider a taking non-consumable item of considerable value, such as a bathrobe, to be anything but theft is beyond me.

On a more humorous note, back in the late seventies I caught a guest (a fairly affluent one at that) trying to steal one of those huge, ugly table lamps that were popular in hotels back then. He came strolling through the lobby with this monstrosity wrapped in a hotel towel, evidently to divert suspicion. When I caught him taking it out the side door, I also found that he had taken a large quantity of cheese from a banquet room, also wrapped in a towel, and the Gideon bible from his room for good measure.

I let him keep the bible, I figured he needed it.

(Ttrue story, I wouldn't lie about a thing like that!)

What about those fabulous leather writing pads and desk sets? I've always wanted one and you can't buy those in the gift shop, except maybe the W Store. :)