Is it stealing from your hotel room when you take pens and bath amenities? What about robes and towels?
When Lynn Culver checks into a property, she helps herself to the soaps and shampoos in her room. If housekeeping replaces the items, she takes the new ones, too. Is that stealing from your hotel room?
Culver, a retired attorney from Lumberton, N.J., believes her room rate covers the amenities. Even if it involves stealing from your hotel room.
“But some of my fellow travelers consider this stealing from your hotel room,” she says. “Can you please settle a dispute among friends?”
Sure thing. We pay for these extras, don’t we?
Guests feel they should be able to take the shampoos — and more. It is not stealing from your hotel room. And that’s especially true when hotels add mandatory “resort fees” of between $20 and $30 a night. The surcharge supposedly covers local phone calls, Internet connections, and exercise facilities, regardless of your use. Why not other amenities, too?
Could this leave guests like Culver, who donates the soaps to charity, with the impression that they can help themselves to anything that isn’t bolted down?
And what, exactly, can travelers take from their rooms? Where’s the line?
Let’s answer these questions once and for all about stealing from your hotel room:
- What do hotels allow you to take from your room?
- Which amenities do hotels give away?
- Do resort fees make any difference when it comes to taking items from your hotel?
Items such as soaps and shampoos are meant to be taken from the room, say hotel experts. But there are limits.
The first restriction relates to the quantity of the items removed. “Many hotels experience guests taking an unusually high amount of these items throughout their stay, reasoning that they paid for these items in the cost of the room,” says Robert Koenig, an expert in hospitality management at New York Institute of Technology School of Management. That increases a hotel’s operating costs over time, perhaps pressuring it to add a few dollars a day to its resort fee or to raise room rates.
The second limit is qualitative. Some hotel guests take branded glassware, TV remote controls, pillows, hair dryers, clock radios and plants. “They are not entitled to that, of course,” Koenig says. A hotel will charge you for swiping those items if its staff notices they’re missing.
What you’re saying
Other items are intended as giveaways. “Pens are actually a great marketing tool for hotels,” says Cory Sarrett, a consultant for La Galerie Hotel in New Orleans. “They expect you to take them, and they consider it free advertising.” Pens are not considered stealing from your hotel room.
Other hotels are turning the five-finger discount into a charitable opportunity. At the new Bobby Hotel in Nashville, each bathroom is outfitted with custom towels that have the hotel’s live-in rescue dog, Sasha, embroidered on them. If you take one of them home, the Bobby bills you $25.
“But instead of the money going to the hotel, it is directly donated to the rural nonprofit rescue where Sasha was found, Country Road Animal Rescue,” says Kristen Kelleher, a spokeswoman for the property. “Guests are encouraged to take the towels home with them, knowing that it’s for a good cause and a keepsake from their time at the hotel.”
Part of the problem is hotel resort fees. When you book online, you are initially quoted a low rate, minus taxes and mandatory fees. But as you continue the reservation, hotels add the required fees to the total price.
Do resort fees make any difference when it comes to taking items from your hotel?
If hotels quoted an initial rate that included the mandatory resort fee and spelled out what it covered, there’d be no misunderstanding. But too often hotels back into their disclosures.
“I could see how a guest who is being charged what they consider to be an unfair resort fee might feel justified in taking these items,” says Scott Smith, a professor in the University of South Carolina’s School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management.
The Federal Trade Commission, which has the power to regulate this kind of hotel pricing, was poised to take action on resort fee disclosures in 2016. The government would have required hotels to include any mandatory fee in its initial price quote. In early 2023, the Biden Administration launched a war on junk fees. As part of that effort, it has proposed a ban on junk fees, including hotel resort fees.
When a hotel plays price games, implying that everything is included — even though you know it isn’t — guests are tempted to take more.
But as they say, two wrongs don’t make a right. The next time you’re thinking of taking a pillow or towel, remember the old rule: If it’s disposable, it’s yours. If it’s not, you’ll pay for it, one way or another.
Paul Fournier had a few thoughts about bad hotel guests:
Last year, I stayed at a charming boutique hotel in Kyoto, one of those serene places designed to make you feel like the world has slowed down just for you. But my peaceful escape was interrupted by a group of travelers who, unintentionally, became “those guests.” Late at night, they treated the hallways like their personal lounge, laughing loudly and banging doors as they moved between rooms. It wasn’t malicious — just thoughtless.
It made me think about how often bad hotel behavior isn’t about outright rudeness but simple obliviousness. Many travelers, especially after a day of sightseeing or socializing, just don’t realize how their actions affect others. Loud conversations echoing through thin walls, letting kids run wild in shared spaces, or even just neglecting to greet hotel staff with basic politeness — these little things add up.
Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers consumers to solve their problems and helps those who can’t. He’s the author of numerous books on consumer advocacy and writes three nationally syndicated columns. He also publishes the Elliott Report, a news site for consumers, and Elliott Confidential, a critically acclaimed newsletter about customer service. If you have a consumer problem you can’t solve, contact him directly through his advocacy website. You can also follow him on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or sign up for his daily newsletter.
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Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate, and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential, a travel newsletter, and the Elliott Report, a news site about customer service. If you need help with a consumer problem, you can reach him here or email him at [email protected].
