JAN 28 — Let’s be honest here. How many of us have taken something from a hotel room that we shouldn’t have? A towel, those little shampoo bottles, things like that.
Hotels do take the loss of these items into account, and it is reflected in the prices that you pay for a room. I once, in a fit of boredom, sat down and worked out how much it would cost to replenish and service a room.
This included the wages for the housekeeper who made up the room. It worked out to something like £10 (RM50) per room. We used to sell an average room for roughly £200 a night. Do the math.
Hotel room mini bars are often a huge loss for the business. When I first started working at the hotel in Cambridge, every room had a fully-stocked mini bar. Over the years we tried many ways to reduce the loss that these mini bars generated, but were never really successful.
The way it worked at first, at the point of checking out, the guest would be asked if they had had anything from the mini bar. More often than not, the answer was “No”. By the time housekeeping got to the room and discovered that the mini bar fridge was empty, the guest would be on a plane halfway to Mexico.
Those mini vodka and gin bottles were drunk, and filled up with tap water, in the hopes that no one would notice. And many times no one did. The truly amazing thing is that someone once walked out with the entire mini bar fridge. And no one noticed. My mind still boggles at that.
In the end, we left the mini bar fridges empty, and only stocked them up if the guests requested them filled.
One enterprising couple actually managed to take most things from the hotel room that weren’t bolted down. TV, table lamps, pillows, hairdryer. They were really smart. They checked out at about 2am, when staff were minimal and not as alert.
The husband checked out and paid the bill, while the wife brought the car to the side entrance. They turned down the offer for help with their bags, loaded up the car and left. CCTV footage was helpful but I don’t think we ever caught them.
The management team held many meetings about what we could do to stem the loss. My suggestion of strip searching everyone as they checked out was met with a frown by my general manager.
I mean, light bulbs were being taken, for heaven’s sake. My other suggestion of putting in an airport style X-ray machine was met with similar disapproval. Honestly, sometimes I don’t know why I bothered.
Then there was the time a couple of hotels in London were hit by a gang pretending to be doing renovation works. They would come in at around 12pm, which was normally the check-out time, when the staff were at their busiest.
They would then walk out with rugs, lamps and TVs from rooms that were being refreshed. No one seemed to have thought to question them because they were dressed like workmen and I think one of them carried a clipboard.
I am convinced that you can pull anything off if you carry a clipboard and look confident.
I guess there is the challenge and thrill of making off with something that doesn’t belong to you. I suppose the justification is that a lot of money has been paid for a room, so why not. Who knows? It happens and will keep happening I reckon.
Best one I heard of recently? One of our local, well-known hotels, lost three brand new flat screen televisions and a safe from the room. A safe, I mean, come on. I guess if you got to have it, you’ve got to have it.
* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.
