"Stealing" plush hotel bathrobes
 

Just returned from two nights in Brussels (after some days in Lyon and before heading to Africa) where I stayed (or rather crashed) with my father at the Hotel Amigo. I am not much of a bathrobe person, but the ones they had at this hotel were quite divine and ever so decadent.

So I decided to steal/take/borrow one but my father would here nothing of it. He (the company) would be charged, and that looks bad, although he is master and commander of his organisation's budget anyway. And what is a little extra charge in an otherwise ridiculously expensive hotel stay anyway? After a long debate (I argued that my parents have a whole closet of hotel bathrobes), the bathrobe remained in the former prison turned hotel and now I am without a nice bathrobe. :(

Question is... do hotels really charge for stolen/borrowed/taken bathrobes? I have a small collection of towels from various hotels around the world, for which I was never charged.

Has anyone else stolen/borrowed/taken bathrobes from hotels, and were you charged?

What else have you stolen/borrowed/taken from hotels? (besides toilettries) I did take the guide to all the LHW hotels from the Amigo. :eek:

I have been charged for a bathrobe I never took :mad: The dispute was "resolved" in the hotel's favor without even contacting me. The "resolution" was eventually reversed. A lot of headache for something I didn't even see or use, let alone take.

Bathrobes are definitely off limits. You might as well take the clock radio, the TV, or the mattress.

In a few of the "nicer" hotels I've stayed at in the U.S. that provide nice plush bathrobes, there is a note saying that if you wished to purchase the bathrobe, you could do so at $ x.

I think you just opened a can of worms.

While I have stayed at some fabulous places it was never a mental option to take a robe. I guess, if it does not seem as though they intend for you to take an item, then you should not take it. That is where subjectivity come into play.

I have seen this discussion get aggressive previously. There is a reasonable argument to say that you are a common thief. Others will say, that it is deminimus.

Personally, I believe that a robe rises above deminimus.

To me, taking a robe from a hotel room without paying for it is the same as taking it from a store without paying for it.

If you're comfortable with shoplifting, then I guess go ahead?

Never, but I do own this robe and is fantastic

http://www.hammacher.com/publish/74035.asp

They are pricey items ;)

Hotels are clever. They expect guests to steal from them and to replace what is stolen they add a mark up in the room rates just to cover these expenses. Typically about 10% of the room rate but probably much more in higher end properties. I read an interesting article in an Australian newspaper last year and you wouldn't believe some of the items people steal. Things that routinely disappear from hotels include ornate lamps, luxury linen, silverware and crockery. Even expensive rugs. Someone even managed to steal a grandfather clock, though how they managed that is beyond me.

'Has anyone else stolen/borrowed/taken bathrobes from hotels, and were you charged?

What else have you stolen/borrowed/taken from hotels?

Are you kidding? Were you planning at some time to "return" your "borrowed" robe? Clearly your father has some standards that are sorely lacking today.

That is mildly insulting... but I will not take offence because I know I am not a shoplifter. I only asked because I assumed (wrongly I now know) that bathrobes were part of the list of items hotels regularly expect to lose to guests, such as towels, toilettries, magazines and such. Guess I should go buy myself a robe if I really want one...

Not trying to insult.

Stores "expect" to lose merchandise due to shoplifting as well, but I don't think that that makes it more legitimate to take merchandise from them.

Did you mean de minimis? Yes, it is lacking significance but here is my point of view- why buy a used bathrobe or have one charged to your room? Go downstairs and buy a new one from the spa. It will come up as a spa charge or look like a hotel restaurant bill. Not only would this be legal, but you would also get more points. :D

I don’t think that hotels expect the guests to steal from them, but I’m sure they are very aware that there are a certain percentage of people that have no scruples that don’t think twice about stealing.

The price of everything you buy is slightly inflated to cover the shoplifting/stealing that goes on. So I guess everyone gets to pay for those stolen robes.

Many hotels now just list robes and other like items with the mini bar menu. That way you didn't steal it, you simply forgot to fill out the mini bar menu when you departed.

How could one think that a $100 item (or more) was "included in the rate"??

It would never enter my mind to take anything from a hotel...well, OK, I take the soap.

Isn't charging $5 for a minibar item worth 50c a form of theft ?
What about when I replace the above item with an identical one bought at Walgreens instead ?
The crime is in the eye of the beholder. :)