Pinching stuff from hotel rooms/villas

[Januaryisjustaweirdmonth]

Do you do it? Is it acceptable, is it illegal? I actually have no idea.
Would you take bath soaps/bubbles etc, loo rolls, towels, a robe?
Just curious really
I’ve always taken the little bottles/soaps with me when I’ve left somewhere I’ve stayed and thought nothing of it.
Do people take more though and is that illegal actually?

On the thread where the breakfast buffet/ making sandwiches for later came up there was every reason under the sun given as to why it was perfectly ok and normal and not at all embarrassing 🤷‍♀️

The dining room staff know you are sneaking a bread roll and some ham in your bag. They don't care. It is embarrassing to watch though.

Iv brought the biscuits home for my granddaughter.i thinks it's the novelty of having a couple of biscuits in one little packet that appeals to her.
Also the plastic shower caps for DH to stretch over the bowl when he is proving bread.
And if they have them, those little packets of a couple of cotton buds. Ideal to pop in my bag for when I might need to clean up a mascara smudge when I'm out.

@Sparklingbrook If people aren't embarrassed to do it then it is not embarrassing, is it?

What you think doesn't matter

It was embarrassing to me being associated with people who did it 🤔

There is such a thing as vicarious embarrassment too.

There certainly is. I’d be mortified if I was with someone who did it.

We stayed in a 5 star hotel in Dubrovnik last year ( great rate by booking super early) and there was a sign about not making up picnics from the breakfast buffet and reception staff would make a picnic at additional cost if you needed one.

How sad is it to be able to afford a 5 star and still be making sweaty sandwiches.

Fancy having to have an actual sign up. Mind you it could put the idea in people's heads.

I used to work breakfast shift in a 4* hotel restaurant. We didn't care as such, but we did think the people 'subtly' sneaking out food were CFers, and desperately tight.

We had more respect for those who'd stroll out with a banana or a pastry clearly in hand and ask 'do you mind if I take this, I'm in a rush / my spouse is still in bed' whatever.

Some valuable tips for the larcenists here: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/23/things-people-steal-from-hotels-why

I once read about a man in the US who reversed his big truck up to the window and made off with the entire contents of the room.

disposable shoe cleaner

Does anybody remember those shoe-shine machines they used to have at some hotels? The big cleany buffer wheel thing that you held your shoe under and then pressed the button?! I haven't seen them for many years now - must have gone the same way as the beloved Corby trouser press.

I'm in two minds about the ethics of taking food away from the all-inclusive breakfast for later. Obviously, taking shedloads is wrong; but a lot of people simply cannot countenance eating much food that early, so how does it affect the hotel if they eat minimally at breakfast but then take a bit extra (i.e. no more than a 'standard' breakfast's-worth) for later?

If you'd had a room-service breakfast delivered at 8am, not eaten all of it and then packaged up the remainder to take with you for lunch, nobody would be shouting that you'd broken the rules. One person could just have a bowl of cornflakes at the time and take a single roll and butter for later and be considered a dirty little thief; whilst another person could polish off three bowls of cereal, four big full-fry-ups, half a loaf of toast and an armful of muffins - but because they can summon up the appetite and determination to scoff the lot then and there, that's absolutely fine?

Fancy having to have an actual sign up. Mind you it could put the idea in people's heads.

It's fascinating, the sheer array of signs you see all over the place; and the only reason for these apparently wacky requests or instructions must be because a significant amount of people who have gone before have contravened what should have been obvious.

The problem is, though, that this is overlooking the Golden Rule Of Signs, which confidently asserts: "The only people who will ever bother to read a sign will be the ones for whom the sign was never needed".

I’ll take the toiletries if they’re a brand I’d like - such as when I got lots of Molton Brown when staying in a posh hotel for work! I also like to take a mini sewing kit once in a while - they’re handy for running repairs when on holiday, and the like.

I do have to admit to having a towel from the Paris Hilton. It was the 90s, and I thought it was entertaining to have a towel with ‘Paris Hilton’ on it. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤣 (I was a student; it was a ‘thing’ I was at, not that i could afford to stay there…) Anyway. That Paris Hilton towel still gets used for swimming; to be fair, it’s a good quality towel, still in use 25 years on…

Oh, and I do often take an apple from breakfast, for elevenses. But, I’m open about it. No one has ever stopped / charged me for my solitary piece of fruit.

Oh, you’ve just reminded me of my soap collection. I had Avon swans, matryoshka ones, and my prized possession - my Mrs Tiggy Winkle. They were in my parents’ attic; and we’re tragically nibbled by a mouse invasion. I was a bereft 35 year old! 😭🤣

If I stay the weekend at my mates, I take all the loo roll I can find. Then I tell them I've run out, and when they bring a new multi-pack in, I take that too! After all, they can't know how much I've crapped! And no-one has ever said anything 🤷

I'll start taking their tea-bags too!👍

If I stay the weekend at my mates, I take all the loo roll I can find. Then I tell them I've run out, and when they bring a new multi-pack in, I take that too! After all, they can't know how much I've crapped! And no-one has ever said anything

I'd have thought you would be too occupied sitting on your own throne these days.

DH travels for work quite a lot and usually flies with hand luggage only so he has a few mini toiletries he's taken from hotels. Of course most of the hotels he stays in have toiletries provided so he rarely uses the ones he's taken, but he always puts a couple of shampoos in his bag just in case.
Other than that, I have been known to take the occasional bit of fruit out of breakfast, but that's it.
When I was younger I used to take all the mini toiletries, pens, sewing kits etc though. I grew up in a family without much disposable income and I'd never stayed in a hotel of any kind til I was in my 20s so it was quite exciting and I loved having those little things. Now I realise that they mostly don't get used and just clutter up my bathroom so unless they are particularly nice brands I don't bring any home. I do have a pair of fluffy socks and an eye mask that were given out on an overnight flight with Cathay Pacific many years ago that I still take with me if I'm going on a long flight, but they were obviously intended for single person use so I think it was ok to take them and they've had good use.

Ha, indeed! 😁

But everywhere I go is soooo posh and and the roll is scented!! One can't resist!

Meh, I take the toiletries if I like them, if they're the individual bottles/sachets that are replaced between guests if opened.

I will get myself a croissant or pastry, some fruit or yoghurt, and sausages and toast at breakfast and then if I don't eat the sausages and toast, make a toasted sausage butty for later, but if I ate them, I wouldn't go up for more. I also don't hide it, I am not embarrassed or ashamed to be taking my left overs with me, nor am I taking more food than anyone could actually eat.

I will alter the settings on the toaster to do my croissants if possible and I will absolutely [s]stab someone in the back of the hand with a fork[/s] glare at them in a passive aggressive manner, if they change the settings mid way through or steal my fucking toast though. Bastards.

I would never steal anything, but I did once have to use up all the loo roll and tissues in a hotel room due to a nasty unexpected case of diarrhoea. There was only just enough, t I was too embarrassed to ring reception and ask for more. It was the last night there too...

An old aunt of dh’s was unbelievably tight with money (I used to call her Queen Midas) but even she was acutely embarrassed when a friend used to nick all the sachets of sugar, ketchup, salt and pepper, everything, from any cafe table they were sitting at.

I hadn't considered cafe tables the same as hotels ?
I wouldn't take anything from a cafe table - sugars / sachets etc unless using there and then .
I don't think I have seen anyone clear the sachets ?

Most hotels would charge your card after you left if you stole robes and other room items that were not intended to be taken.
Housekeeping would notify the reception On the day you checked out and they would put the value on your card

I wouldn't take anything from a cafe table - sugars / sachets etc unless using there and then

I would take a couple of sugar sachets.
The way I see it is I pay the same for a mug of tea, whether I take sugar in my tea or not. So I am effectively paying for those 2 sugar sachets. I don't need them then (as I don't like the taste) but they are a very useful thing for my dh to take camping, which you can't easily buy anywhere else (I presume you can in some sort of wholesalers, but not in your run of the mill grocery shop, and I presume if you did find some, you'd have to buy them in the hundreds).
So I have no qualms about taking "my sugar allowance" from a hotel, cafe, or anywhere else.
I wouldn't clear the table though.