10 Things People Steal The Most From Hotel Rooms

From trying new foods to visiting museums and observing local traditions, traveling expands our horizons. It exposes us to the sights, smells, and sounds of another place, leaving us with memories we can treasure even when the vacation ends. But sometimes, the things we bring home aren't just snow globes and snapshots for a photo album — sometimes, the things we pack in our suitcases are stolen from hotels ...

Guests tend to be pretty liberal about what they take from rooms, according to people who work in the hospitality industry. "I work at a hotel[,] and we have so many issues with people stealing anything that isn't bolted down in the rooms," writes one employee on Reddit. "I mean it, towels, blankets, silverware, pots, pans, the most annoying one is the HDMI cords." In fact, upwards of 85% of American hotel-goers admit to stealing an item from their room at least once, per Passport Photo. Some items are meant to be taken — like individually wrapped soaps, lotions, and shampoo bottles — but others just might result in an extra charge to your tab, like robes and slippers.

Oftentimes, hotel theft is simply a misunderstanding; guests assume that an item is there to be taken. Altogether, this common mistake results in an annual loss of $100 million for the hospitality industry. With the help of a survey by the vacation rental platform Deluxe Holiday Homes, per Southern Living, as well as other surveys by Wellness Heaven and Passport Photo, we've compiled a list of the ten most frequently stolen items from hotel rooms, from books to bath towels.

Some hotels take great pride in the plushness of their bathroom accessories. In fact, Marriott Bonvoy even has a website where you can buy some of its most popular towels. Because they're easy to pack into a suitcase, towels are the most commonly stolen item from hotel rooms, according to Deluxe Holiday Homes (via Travel + Leisure). 88% of participants in the survey — which included about 1,200 hotel staffers — reported they frequently disappear. That being said, you might want to think before running off with a towel yourself ... It's common for chains to charge your room for missing towels.

Perhaps unexpectedly, the Bible in your hotel's bedside table is typically up for grabs, and it's not uncommon for hotel guests to take them. Religious organizations like The Gideons donate Bibles to hotels for free, so they don't always need to buy a replacement. You might even see a message inside that says something like "Placed by the Gideons." The organization encourages people to take the book with them if they want. That being said, it's becoming rarer to find Bibles in hotel rooms across America, so it might be harder to tuck one into your bag in the coming years.

It's common for hotel chains to have a signature scent. The Ritz-Carlton, for instance, uses Asprey Purple Water-branded shampoos, lotions, and conditioners in its bathrooms — for a full-sized bottle, you'd be paying between $50 and $60. Ultimately, these little bottles of shampoo or bars of soap are one of the most commonly stolen items from hotels and — most of the time — it's expected that guests will take them home. "Toiletries, such as bar soap, shampoo, and disposable slippers, are okay to take," hotel operations professor Mehmet Erdem told Travel + Leisure.

Clothing hangers are lightweight, and they can easily fit inside a suitcase. In other words, they're one of the easiest things to steal from a hotel room. According to the Deluxe Holiday Homes survey, per Travel + Leisure, hangers are the third most-stolen item. Forensic psychiatrist Austin Blum told Business Traveler, "Some people feel that they've already paid for the room, so they're entitled to take things as souvenirs ... or they may rationalize it by thinking that the hotel expects items to go missing." Clothing hangers are just one of the many casualties of this thought process.

Like bottled shampoos and pillow mints, pens and notepads are considered complimentary by most hotels. In fact, because most of these items are printed with the hotel's logo, it's almost like free advertising for the brand. Overall, about 42% of hotel customers admit to taking pens from their rooms, per Wellness Heaven. This puts them just behind towels, bathrobes, and hangers in popularity, according to the survey. Plus, because pens are among the most common items people forget to pack, it's no wonder why they often disappear from hotels.

Framed art pieces might be too big to fit in a suitcase, but where there's a will, there's a way. According to Wellness Heaven, around 25% of hotel managers report artwork as one of the most-stolen items, noting that it's even more common to see paintings disappear from upscale establishments. Most of the time, these thefts go unaddressed. "We never report thefts to the police, even if we know exactly who the culprit is," says an unnamed hotel desk manager, per The Guardian. "As a luxury hotel, we can't risk the bad publicity."

According to Wellness Heaven, robes are the second most commonly stolen item in hotels after towels. "Sometimes guests think the bathrobes are free to take, but that's never true," a travel expert at Deluxe Holiday Homes shared, per Travel + Leisure. In fact, if you've ever wondered what really happens if you take the bathrobe from your hotel room, just know that it's a pretty steep charge; hotel robes can cost upwards of $100 depending on where you're staying.

In the words of Kate De Palma, who works as the marketing manager at the Station House Inn in Lake Tahoe, California, "... one of the most 'snatched' items isn't the robe or the toiletries — it's our hotel-branded coffee mugs," per Travel + Leisure. If the hotel offers breakfast, mugs and other serving utensils are especially easy to steal since they aren't assigned to a particular room. In other words, guests know they likely won't be charged ... Although mugs are a no-go, you're welcome to take the complimentary coffee packets or Keurig pods found in your room.

If you ever notice the TV in your hotel room isn't working, it just might be because the previous guest has pocketed the batteries in the remote. If they're a practiced thief, they may have even swapped out the remote's working batteries with old, used ones. According to Wellness Heaven, Americans are far more likely to steal batteries than guests from other countries, and upwards of 30% of hotel patrons admit to taking them at some point.

It's common for hotels to be stocked with basic hair styling tools. According to Deluxe Holiday Homes, per Forbes, these are also frequently stolen. And, no, they're not complimentary. "Hairdryers and steam irons are among the items known to get 'accidentally' packed away when checking out," says University of Nevada Hospitality professor Mehmet Erdem, per Travel + Leisure. Instead of packing up one of these tools and taking it home, you might want to avoid using a hotel hair dryer altogether. They're often loaded with bacteria, which can lead to skin irritation and other health consequences.