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.

Jeez, very wrong!
Why put temptation in people’s way? Passports and money left lying around is just lunacy.
Ditto anything remotely valuable.

The EU is not some social utopia. €20 for a day's work in Greece.

You'd notice that much product if it was leaking/spilling it would have been a mess and if someone like my husband had spilt it, it would not have been well cleaned up enough and you'd have noticed.

They might not have decanted it, but perhaps messed with it and it then spilled or leaked but, they should have said something.

I would complain.

This has reminded mech of when dh and I stayed in very nice old hotel 4 star outside Dublin for a couple of nights. We had housekeeping knocking on our door at 8am about cleaning the room!!!! We told them we were not up yet. Got up shortly after and went down to Breakfast. Came back up packed and set off for home. We lived approx one and a half hours away. Just as we were getting near home I realised I had forgotten to pack my phone and iPad charger. Phoned hotel and they said they hadn't been found in the room. Phone charger was brand new as had just got a new phone. Eventually they sent me the charger for the iPad but not the phone. They were going to charge me postage but in the end they didn't. I am convinced that the person who wanted into our room at 8am was responsible for the theft of my brand new charger.

I’d complain. Like you, I repeat purchase certain expensive products and would not be happy for someone to be helping themselves in my hotel room. I’d know immediately if a significant amount had disappeared from the tube in a strange way or if it had simply leaked. A leak would leave residue outside of the packaging, for starters! Put everything away that you don’t want touching as someone has clearly found a good way to pinch stuff from guests.

You have to wonder what is going through the minds of the management when they gaslight guests like happened to both of us. I am sure it is a conscious thought process that goes “we can’t admit we agree it was probably our staff because then we’ll get a rep as a hotel whose staff steal stuff”. And this guest is never coming back anyway, so better to upset one individual than a whole set of potential new customers. I reckon sometimes they might even fire the person involved but never admit to the guest that is what happened, and just maintain the line of “sorry, we have not found anything”.

Can you prove that it was full when you arrived?

If not I'm not sure that they can say/do much.

@LadyEloise1
I did report the underwear at the time
The tights I didn’t because I thought I might have forgotten to pack them but realised when I got home I hadn’t

Yes and we are from Ireland too and were so aware of this. I really felt on edge there and had gone there with an open mind.

They absolutely have time for this especially if they are doing it routinely.

Years ago now, I accidentally left an expensive pen behind in a hotel room. Initially I got told nothing had been handed in by Housekeeping. When I pressed them it turned up. For an extravagant price they sent it to me but it had clearly been deliberately broken. A kind of f--- you I guess.

I was away for a weekend with friends followed by an important work event staying at a different hotel. I left 1st hotel after weekend, was only a short walk away when I realised I had left work outfit hanging in wardrobe. Dashed back to hotel and it had gone - apparently the room had been empty when cleaners had checked it. Had to quickly go shopping but lost a favourite item, though think I was more upset by the attitude of the staff- was a big London hotel.

Easily done i would report.

I had a similar thing happen to me in Toronto, @Rocketpants50. I left my favourite top hanging in the wardrobe when I checked out. Called a few hours later to ask how I could pay to have it forwarded to me, only to be told that nothing was found in my room after I left. I still feel annoyed about it.

Why would it be petty to raise it with the hotel when the item you're talking about cost £75? That's anything but petty!

its also quite yucky to think that strangers have been messing with stuff you use on your skin :(

You didn't lose it love. Some pig took it. Try and be less hard on yourself.

It's only taken 25 years but it has dawned on me I didn't lose my new bra on honeymoon. Someone bloody took it!

This thread has really shocked me. It never even occurred to me that housekeeping staff would steal people's stuff.

I had two friends who had short term jobs in housekeeping when we were in our teens (late 90s). Very upmarket hotel in the Cotswolds. The amount of stuff they stole was ridiculous -from the hotel and from guests. They didn't give a shit. They didn't even get sacked, they left after they saved enough for their holiday to Magaluf. They didn't have any regrets and thought it was hilarious. Some people genuinely just don't give a fuck!

When I go on holiday I try to lock my valuables in my case. I read on the news about a hotel member trying to unlock a PC. Why would you want to look on someone's laptop for a innocent reason

Happened to me too. It was a Clinique toner and moisturiser which must have been decanted into something as they were nearly new. I- through gritted teeth- didn't do anything about it as was in the hotel for my sister's wedding and my room was also being paid for. From then on, anything of simple sentimental value or that I couldn't 'prove' has gone in the safe.
I would definitely raise it with the hotel and I would have in my case had circumstances been different. It's not even the value of the items, it's the violation.

I worked as a chambermaid for a small hotel when I was 16 - for the main I was on my own on the Saturday and another girl did the Sunday shift - one busy week we were scheduled to work together to get through the rooms faster and I was astonished that the other girl put the TV on in every room to watch Saturday morning TV while we cleaned. She ate several packets of biscuits from the box we were using to restock the coffee area, and she tested guests' perfumes on herself if it was something she fancied!

I was amazed - I'd been working there for six months and it had never occurred to me to do any of those things.

I do admit to having the odd biscuit after that.

I guess it must be really difficult for hotel owners and management to get things right. For every genuine theft allegation, there must also be many cases where the ‘customer’ has made a mistake.

My friend had expensive jewellery stolen from her safe on her honeymoon and the complex owners refused to do anything about it until they called the police in.

I have had jewellery stolen my cleaners when we stayed in a villa that was rented out by a big company.

It definitely happens and I don't know why people on this side are trying to suggest that it doesn't. I think it happens far more than people realise as well because sometimes you don't realise you've lost something until a lot later because you assume you've left it in your suitcase or you forgot to pack it or whatever and it's not until a while later that you realise that you did take it away and that it hasn't come back home with you.

Another problem is when you leave things behind accidentally but they don't hold things in lost property. We had this happen with a toy in a premier Inn at Heathrow and even though I contacted them the next day and then we went back when we flew back to Heathrow later they said they didn't have anything and that nothing had been found. They simply can't be bothered and just either chuck things away or take them and sell them because they are supposed to hold lost property for a period of time but they just don't.