How Bed and Breakfast Owners Can Minimize Their Losses
Unfortunately for hoteliers and bed and breakfast owners, kleptomania is alive and kicking.
According to a recent survey conducted by a national newspaper, light fittings, television sets and even the stuffed head of a wild boar were among items stolen by guests this year.
Amazingly, almost forty per cent of guests admitted to having misappropriated something while staying at a hotel, guest house or bed and breakfast place.
A similar exercise conducted by an independent hotel guide found that hairdryers, bath robes and expensive toiletries were the items most likely to go missing.
Two out of three women, and 59 percent of men, surveyed confessed that they had walked out with items ranging from Bibles to bedspreads.
One Leicester bed and breakfast owner even reported spotting a guest walk out the front door with a television set.
Although amazingly the man left the bed and breakfast establishment unchallenged, he was later arrested for theft.
How can hotels and bed and breakfast establishments minimize their losses? Obviously, no one wants to accuse guests of stealing, but what can be done without strip searching every guest on departure? They could follow the example of the semi-humorous approach taken by one hotelier, which takes the form of a notice displayed in every bedroom: "We hope you appreciate all the small touches which we have added around the hotel.
Unfortunately not everybody leaves things for future guests to enjoy.
The favourite items which go missing are scallop-shaped soap dishes, hand-made toilet roll holders, Laura Ashley sewing kits, napkin rings, hair dryers, torches, telephones and hot-water bottles.
" There was also a rather wry postscript concerning the mini-bar: "We have learnt that you need a razor blade to cut the seal around a mini vodka bottle.
You can then drink its contents and fill it up with water.
For whisky and rum, it is a little more difficult, but if you order early morning tea, you can fill the bottles with tea.
It has happened in this hotel.
" The effectiveness of this hotelier's innovative idea is not recorded, but it hopefully it has pricked a few guilty consciences! Another hotelier once employed a more direct tactic.
One day he was saying goodbye to a female guest when the lady opened her handbag, inadvertently revealing three of the hotel's ashtrays.
"I think one is acceptable, but three is a bit greedy," said the owner, taking back two of them.
The lady, not at all shamefaced, protested that she always helped herself to souvenir ashtrays.
"Yes madam," replied the hotelier, "but I doubt whether they are all Royal Worcester.
" It doesn't seem to matter whether it is a boutique hotel in rural Devon, a posh central London establishment or a Leicester bed and breakfast, all owners are suffering from theft by light-fingered guests.
Ultimately, loss and damage are considered costs of doing business and are figured into room rates.
However, although losing a towel or two may not break the bank, all these small losses can add up, especially if, like many bed and breakfast guest houses, you are on a tight budget.
According to a recent survey conducted by a national newspaper, light fittings, television sets and even the stuffed head of a wild boar were among items stolen by guests this year.
Amazingly, almost forty per cent of guests admitted to having misappropriated something while staying at a hotel, guest house or bed and breakfast place.
A similar exercise conducted by an independent hotel guide found that hairdryers, bath robes and expensive toiletries were the items most likely to go missing.
Two out of three women, and 59 percent of men, surveyed confessed that they had walked out with items ranging from Bibles to bedspreads.
One Leicester bed and breakfast owner even reported spotting a guest walk out the front door with a television set.
Although amazingly the man left the bed and breakfast establishment unchallenged, he was later arrested for theft.
How can hotels and bed and breakfast establishments minimize their losses? Obviously, no one wants to accuse guests of stealing, but what can be done without strip searching every guest on departure? They could follow the example of the semi-humorous approach taken by one hotelier, which takes the form of a notice displayed in every bedroom: "We hope you appreciate all the small touches which we have added around the hotel.
Unfortunately not everybody leaves things for future guests to enjoy.
The favourite items which go missing are scallop-shaped soap dishes, hand-made toilet roll holders, Laura Ashley sewing kits, napkin rings, hair dryers, torches, telephones and hot-water bottles.
" There was also a rather wry postscript concerning the mini-bar: "We have learnt that you need a razor blade to cut the seal around a mini vodka bottle.
You can then drink its contents and fill it up with water.
For whisky and rum, it is a little more difficult, but if you order early morning tea, you can fill the bottles with tea.
It has happened in this hotel.
" The effectiveness of this hotelier's innovative idea is not recorded, but it hopefully it has pricked a few guilty consciences! Another hotelier once employed a more direct tactic.
One day he was saying goodbye to a female guest when the lady opened her handbag, inadvertently revealing three of the hotel's ashtrays.
"I think one is acceptable, but three is a bit greedy," said the owner, taking back two of them.
The lady, not at all shamefaced, protested that she always helped herself to souvenir ashtrays.
"Yes madam," replied the hotelier, "but I doubt whether they are all Royal Worcester.
" It doesn't seem to matter whether it is a boutique hotel in rural Devon, a posh central London establishment or a Leicester bed and breakfast, all owners are suffering from theft by light-fingered guests.
Ultimately, loss and damage are considered costs of doing business and are figured into room rates.
However, although losing a towel or two may not break the bank, all these small losses can add up, especially if, like many bed and breakfast guest houses, you are on a tight budget.
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