What all is stolen in the hotel

The main result of the study: the overwhelming majority of guests who steal leave towels and bathrobes behind. These two frontrunners are closely followed by clothes hangers, pens and cutlery. In addition, there are a number of spectacular outliers that suggest a lively theft imagination on the part of the delinquents. The most bizarre stolen goods in the hotel:

• Bathroom fittings: Those guests who stole all the bathroom fittings, the head of a rain shower, a hydromassage shower, a toilet seat, a drain pipe or even an entire sink, as reported by a Berlin hotel, had to demonstrate a high degree of craftsmanship.
• A piano: A hotelier from Italy: "Once when I was walking through the lobby, I noticed that something was missing. Shortly after, I learned that three unknown men in overalls had taken away the big piano. It never turned up again, of course."
• Music system: A hotel owner from the Sauerland region reports how the entire stereo system of the wellness area disappeared one morning: Wellness junkies apparently dismantled the entire sound equipment overnight and loaded it into the car as a guest gift before looking for refuge.
• Room numbers: In a hotel in England, a guest had unceremoniously removed the numbers from his hotel room door. "We only noticed this when the next guest couldn't find his room," says the hotel manager.

Thieving preferences by nationality

If the delinquents are classified according to nationality, a more differentiated picture emerges. It turns out, for example, that the German hotel guest follows a rather boring theft behavior: In addition to towels and bathrobes, they primarily steal cosmetics.

The Austrians are much more pleasure-oriented: Crockery and coffee machines are high up on the theft scale: in the Alpine republic, it is apparently impossible to have enough of the correct eating utensils and preparation variants for the "little brown one" at home.

Italians prefer wine glasses as hotel souvenirs, while the Swiss rank hairdryers high in the rankings. The French, on the other hand, are more spectacular thieves: they represent the nation that steals TV sets and remote controls most often by far.

Dutch hotel guests see their souvenirs primarily for their practical use: Among their favorites are light bulbs and toilet paper.

Guests of 5-star hotels prefer expensive stolen goods

A total of 634 hoteliers of 4-star hotels and 523 of 5-star hotels were surveyed to determine the thieving behavior depending on the wealth of the guests. The results are astonishing: "Greed is good" seems to be a reliable motto, especially among well-heeled 5-star guests.

For example, guests in the 5-star segment are nine times more likely to have high-quality TV sets stolen from their rooms than travelers in 4-star hotels. Likewise, works of art are a coveted object of desire in luxury hotels (5.5 times more likely to be stolen). Tablets, PCs and mattresses are also stolen more frequently in 5-star hotels.

4-star guests, on the other hand, are content with less spectacular gifts: towels and clothes hangers tend to be more popular with them than with 5-star guests, and practical utensils such as batteries and remote controls are stolen with particular gusto by 4-star hotel guests (3.1 times and 5.0 times more frequently than 5-star travelers, respectively).

Source: Wellness Heaven

About the methodology of the survey

The multiple-choice answers were presented randomly, and multiple responses were possible. The survey was conducted in September and October 2019. A total of 1157 responses from hoteliers were evaluated, so the result can be considered representative. The 1157 hotels whose management participated in the survey are primarily located in Europe, with a focus on Germany, Austria and Italy. In the 4-star segment, 634 hoteliers were surveyed, in the 5-star segment 523.