What can you take from hotel rooms – and what not?
Sure, go ahead and take the toiletries: shampoo, soap and/or even the notepad from your hotel room. Hotel managers expect you to take them. You should obviously leave the hair dryer. But what about the grey area of items like the neat mug-with-hotel-logo?
Lifehacker.com offers advice on what to take and what not, from Michael Forrest Jones, a former business hotel manager who is now a consultant. He explains that hotel managers expect you to use – or take home – consumable items, like soap, shampoo and stationery. The same goes for the bathtub ducky some hotels offer. Take the ducky home after every visit, it probably did not cost more than 89 cents… This is different with towels, hair dryers, lamps, TVs, and TV remotes, alarm clock radios, comforters, coffee makers, bedspreads and blankets. “These are obviously intended for the next guests, are part of the furnishings, and we don't want you taking them.”
Bathrobes are in the grey area. It depends on what sort of hotel you're staying at. “Modestly priced hotels provide them as part of the bedding, and want to launder them and hang them for another guest when you check out. However in a more upscale property, some people actually assume that they're gifts – with the hotel's blessing.” The best advice would be that you should ask reception when in doubt. The same applies to grey-area items like hotel coffee mugs in the room. Some hotels expect to lose one in every five coffee mugs and won’t worry too much on losing a 2-euro item on good promotion.
One more grey-area item is the Gideon Bible in the nightstand. According to some sources, the Gideons actually want you to steal the Gideon Bible from your hotel room, and can't get enough people to do it. Former hotel manager Michael Forrest Jones: “The hotel's staff may or may not share the same feelings.” His advice: “If you want something, just ask. In many cases, the hotel may let you take the item with their blessing, and you'll never worry about being an accidental thief.”
Further reading on lifehacker.com
Image by Matt_Welbo - Flickr
