...the nationality most likely to steal from hotels
Argentinians!!!
Argentinian travellers are the most likely to indulge in hotel misappropriation, a survey has suggested, with 73 per cent admitting to taking items – not including toiletries – from their room.
British guests, in comparison, would appear far more reticent – with less than half of those surveyed owning up to pinching hotel property, putting them 16th out of 28 nationalities to feature.
The global poll of almost 5000 travellers, conducted by Hotels.com, found that Singaporean and Spanish holidaymakers are also rather prone to thievery, with seven in 10 taking items from their hotel. Germany, Ireland and Russia completed the top five.
At the other end of the scale, Colombians were found to be the least likely to take something – just 31 per cent admitting to bagging hotel property. They were followed by travellers from Norway, South Korea, Hong Kong and Denmark.
The most common items taken by British travellers were stationary (20 per cent admitted taking such items) and slippers (12 per cent).
Toiletries were not included, a spokesperson said, as "everyone takes these". Indeed, the vast majority of hotels apparently expect guests to remove all the shampoo and shower gel.
As Jacob Tomsky, author of the best-selling Heads in Beds, a memoir of ten years spent in the hotel industry, explains:
"No respectable hotelier is going to want to pry open your luggage and search for shampoo. We hope you take the amenities. We want you to use them later and think of us."
Tomsky even suggests travellers can get away with stealing items beyond the confines of their rooms.
"Consider the unmanned housekeeper's trolley a smash and grab situation," he said. "Take three of everything and get the hell out of the hallway. Even if you do get caught, just say you were out of shampoo, or, even better, out of toilet paper, and thought you'd save them the trouble by grabbing it for yourself.
"Think of it this way: these amenities are here for you, they are yours. We are in no position to dispute the claim that when you wash your hair you prefer to dump fifteen bottles of lavender and poppy seed shampoo all over your scalp like some gooey shower freak."
Theft of other items is not acceptable, however. In Japan a few years ago, one hotel reportedly had a young couple arrested for running off with bathrobes and an ashtray, while a woman in Nigeria was sentenced to three months in prison for stealing two towels from the Transcorp Hilton Abjua Hotel. In the vast majority of cases you would be unlikely to end up behind bars, but do the same and you can expect to be blacklisted by the hotel, or to find an extra charge on your credit card once when you get home.
The 10 nationalities most likely to steal
Argentina - 73%
Singapore - 71%
Spain - 70%
Germany - 68%
Ireland - 67%
Russia - 59%
Mexico - 59%
Italy - 57%
Japan - 56%
USA - 53%
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