Souvenirs, you say? Hotels might call them stolen goods

I was taking notes for this story on a notepad from the Ritz-Carlton Millenia hotel in Singapore when the ink in my pen from the Sheraton on the Park in Sydney, Australia, went dry. I grabbed a pencil from the Hotel Buci Latin in Paris to complete the note and then picked up a cup of coffee from a pressed-paper coaster from the Hotel Hana Maui in Hawaii.

Little reminders of these memorable trips help make my days in front of a computer a little more bearable.

But are the items I use to ply the trade legitimately obtained souvenirs? To find the line between hotel souvenirs and flat-out stealing, I consulted experts in the hotel industry, hotel operators and some of my well-traveled friends and family.

Pilfering from hotels is widespread, according to an April survey from online travel agency Orbitz. Of respondents who have stayed at a hotel from among a nationwide sample of 2,745 adults, 61% nab toiletries, 18% admitted they had taken towels, 14% swiped ashtrays and 2% stole bathrobes and bathmats.

Experts estimate that losses from hotel theft total $100 million a year. Towels win as the most swiped items, said Tia Gordon, spokeswoman for the American Hotel & Lodging Assn.

Among my well-traveled friends, however, towels were not high on the list. “I’m afraid I’ve never been that interested in other people’s towels,” said Ian Eastment of London.

Another friend isn’t either but had a unique excuse for taking one. She needed “to wrap up a wet Chihuahua,” said Claudia Hoffman of Ventura. “But I informed the hotel clerk and asked to pay for it. They comped the towel.”

Odd things taken by respondents to my informal survey included a phone book and a wooden luggage stand. But they drew the line well below the level of taking pictures, bathrobes or other high-ticket items. It was, however, open season on amenities. “I regard any toiletries as fair game, though I’ve often wondered what to do with 200 individual sachets of shampoo,” Eastment said.

Along those lines, one respondent said, “Shampoo, soap, conditioner etc. -- you should see the accumulation that resides in the guest bathroom.” That was uttered by Linda Gilden, of Fillmore, a seasoned traveler and also my mother.

I treasure some hotel items above even some of the souvenirs I have purchased.

An ashtray I picked up from the Plaza Hotel in New York on my first trip to that city has a special place in my collection and my heart. I have always assumed that such items serve as marketing for the hotel.

Not so, I learned from one expert, though that doesn’t necessarily make one a thief.

Even if hotels expect their guests to help themselves to unopened amenities in their rooms, the hotels don’t really get much marketing value out of those items, said John Bowen, a co-author of “Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism” and the dean of the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston.

“These aren’t social items that you show to other people,” said Bowen, and that limits their appeal as after-the-fact marketing tools.

Each bottle of shampoo or bar of soap costs hotels about 20 cents. When you add in pens, paper and pads, the tab is about $3 per room, Bowen said.

Pilfering of costly items is a big problem for small hotels because they lack the volume to spread the loss over a large number of guests.

Still, to attract a certain level of clientele, certain amenities are necessary, hoteliers and experts said.

Palm Springs hotelier Murray Browatzke runs La Posada Resorts’ two 10-room “upscale but not uptight” properties primarily marketed to gay men, though he has played host to wedding anniversary parties and welcomes non-gay guests. He provides his guests with Aveda bath products, high-end towels and waffle-weave bathrobes.

Taking bath products is a given, Browatzke said, but the loss of such items as towels and bathrobes and, in just the last year, three portable phones puts the squeeze on small hotels’ bottom line.

“It is expensive and frustrating,” Browatzke said of the losses. “But it is not going to impact our decision to provide the best we can for the rest of our guests.”

Hotel managers must handle the question of reimbursement tactfully, especially at smaller establishments where each guest represents a larger part of overall revenue.

“We try to draw things to their attention,” he said, using such lines as, “ ‘It could have happened by accident but your phone is gone.’ ”

Accidental or not, losses to the hotel industry from stolen items add up.

Thefts of “robes, towels ... televisions, comforters, pillows” all contribute to the losses, said Gordon of the hotel lodging association.

Efforts are being made to make it more difficult for such items to walk out the door. Some hotels have resorted to nailing down anything that could easily walk. At some low- and mid-priced motels and hotels, television remotes, paintings, lamps, alarm clocks and televisions have been secured to make them more difficult to steal.

“As the affluence of the guest increases, the chances that they are going to take a $10 item decreases,” said Bowen.

Yet as the price of the hotel room increases, so does the value of the amenities, including towels, bathrobes and even sheets and other bedding.

The industry has found that putting a price tag on such items as bathrobes and offering them for sale has helped stem the losses.

“There has to be some level of trust between the guest and the hotel,” Bowen said.

It’s not just the guest who can violate that trust. If guests perceive they are getting ripped off, it sometimes makes them feel free to return the favor.

“The trust,” Bowen said, “goes both ways.”

Jane Engle is on vacation. The Times welcomes questions and comments on Travel Insider; send them to 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012, or e-mail travel@latimes.com. James Gilden can be reached through www.theinternettraveler.com.