WWYD: Sounds trivial but theft of make up from hotel room

[EdinaMonsoon]

Long weekend break away in a hotel. En route to destination I bought a couple of new makeup products (specifically a CC Cream & skin illuminator). Both were premium products (each worth circa £50). This afternoon I noticed that approximately a fifth of the illuminator had gone. There’s no way I could have used that much. I have applied it twice since purchase and For reference, this product usually lasts me 18 months. Have come back from a night out to find that now half of the illuminator has gone and the CC cream is almost empty.

Since we have been out of the room, it’s clear that the cleaning team/turndown service has been in. So my only conclusion is that it was taken by them. On the face of it, it might seem petty but WIBU to raise it with the hotel? We’re talking about close to £75 of product being taken and the purchase was a rare treat for me.

You're wrong 😑

I’m another one querying how full the container was. If a tube lasts 18 months how can a chambermaid using it once or twice lead to it being half full?

Definitely report it. I'd be really unhappy.
If they do that then they could stealing cash, ID, jewellery. The hotel will know who was on that night. The hotel should compensate you and potentially give the cleaners a warning at least. I guess they could get fined or something, but then they shouldn't be stealing.

If the chambermaid decanted some of it into a pot of her own, that would explain it. It would also make more sense than her just using it on the fly.

This happened to me. I was upset like you OP however after speaking with several friends (not on the holiday with me) I decided not to pursue. If someone is that desperate then I need to re-evaluate and check myself. And 2 if they're living in poverty with no prospects then I let it go and looking back with a cold unemotional mind I know it was the right response for me.

Except that a hotel that gets a reputation for theft isn’t going to provide them with employment for long. Lobby for changes or just tip very well when you leave if you want to improve their lot.

Beacuse... and this isn't how I feel, I am just explaining how theives often feel... they resent that you have more than them and they feel they deserve it as much as you do.
The way they see it, you are on a lovely Holiday, they are slaving away as housekeepers, probably being underpaid and likely being treated pretty shittily. They feel life has dealt them a poor hand and you a good one and it's not fair, so why not take a few of your things? you can probably afford to replace it (they feel), they will probably never have it.
That's how they see it. It's also why burglars sometimes trash people's houses instead of just nicking things. It's a "fuck you" to the people they are jealous of and feel bitter towards.
They don't see things like it being a one-off treat, or a gift, or something you've worked hard and saved for, or the childhood you had etc etc, they are only thinking of their own harsh and unfair lives and the anger they feel about that.

Probably not relevant to your situation OP, but a few years ago I stayed in a classy hotel in Langkawi, Malaysia. We were warned to keep the balcony windows shut because of marauding macaque monkeys. From our balcony, we could see the room of a Swiss couple who had gone out and left the windows open. Sure enough, there was a monkey invasion, and some came out with what looked to be cosmetic pots. They were clever enough to get the lids off. No idea what the couple thought when they got back to their room

How does using expensive “illuminator” on your skin alleviate poverty exactly? Don’t tell me it gives you a “lift” that makes the hunger more bearable 😂

Hmm. As regards my own situation, I don’t think that there is such a massive have and have not divide between hotel cleaning staff and guests at a 4 star in Mallorca.

I can see that it might be different in the developing world.

Dd you report the theft ?

So what did they say op?

On my first trip to Ibiza when I was very young I stayed with another girl in a 1 star apartment with a hole in the wall.. it was very clean though, the cleaner came in every day.
We had no expensive cosmetics or jewellery and had throwaway cameras (this was before camera phones & just when digital cameras were becoming a thing).

The other richer people staying there had digital cameras and money stolen but we had nothing taken.
It may have been the cleaner or it may have been other locals as you could easily get into the apartment block.

There are poorer people living in places like Majorca & Ibiza it's naive to say that there aren't. Just like there are in the UK. And staying in a 4 star hotel with expensive cosmetics is way out of their reach.
I'm an HCA and my colleagues & me get paid the same as a cleaner.

If I had a young family then holidays & cosmetics would be out of my reach.. in fact I can only pay for holidays as I have currently got some inherited savings.
Yes people get resentful living pay cheque to pay cheque.
They see what others have & want the same so some without good morals steal those things. Personally I wouldn't.

I once stayed at a big London hotel & I left my (cheapo) make up out in the bathroom. I always put my eyeshadow on lightly with an applicator, but I opened it one day to find a huge finger mark gouged across it, where the cleaner had obviously used it in a heavy-handed way. If only I'd known, she would've been easy to identify afterwards!

Definitely report or it will happen to others, the hotel owners will not want a bad reputation.

Take photos and definitely report it. The hotel needs to know what their staff are up to.

Not the way we see it, but they may well feel differently

Would definitely tell the hotel
There may be no 100% proof this time (unless someone else has reported issues) but if someone else comes with the same complaint in a few weeks and it is the same cleaning team they may be able to pinpoint the culprit.

It's more of a "fuck you, I don't care about you, you can afford nice things and I can't, I'll probably never get another opportunity to know what this feels like, I'm going to have some, it's nothing to you"

And then probably "that was nice, and I got away with it, they probably didn't even notice, so fuck it, I'm having some more as this job is shit and I feel down".

Or they're decanting it and selling it.

Probably not directly relevant, but I'm surprised lately by the amount of cosmetic decants (and partially-used products) being sold online, and by the high prices these command despite the obvious risks. EBay has cracked down (out of concerns for both health/safety risks and authenticity) but dedicated sites like Mercari have sprung up that cater to this specific market. It's easy to dismiss a scenario like what you've described here as ridiculous and far fetched if you're not aware of this. (I'm not saying that your hotel staff are necessarily stealing product to sell, just that the perceived value of the product itself, without the packaging, is significantly higher than it once was).

This afternoon I noticed that approximately a fifth of the illuminator had gone. In your place I might have rationalised this - was the package defective? Did I use more than I thought/spill some? - but back from a night out to find that now half of the illuminator has gone and the CC cream is almost empty is pretty specific - you'd checked the amount this afternoon and now there's noticeably less just a few hours later.

Surely the joy of expensive cosmetics is the packaging they come in?
It seems really crazy to be decanting stuff, but it’s going to be hard to prove.
How horrible for you ~ I’d be furious too.

My point is that in the EU a large hotel chain cannot exploit staff very easily. The cleaners will be paid a reasonable wage. You said yourself, you earn the same as a cleaner, but you don’t steal. So it’s a bit much to claim that the fact of being in a low paid job makes people more likely to steal. Perhaps the thieves are in low paid jobs because they are lazy and immoral, and it so happens that the jobs give them opportunity to steal?
All the more important for hotels to crack down on the bad apples, so as not to tarnish their many many honest colleagues.

Don’t expect to have anything happen from the hotel. I had jewellery stolen in Paris (it was only cheap so I’d left it out in a rush) and they just refused to believe us.

I think OP said one thing was a pump action. So so easy to fill up your own container from one of those.