SCENE OF THE CRIME : Looting Large

It used to be just towels. Now it’s love seats as well. Whereas hotel guests once contented themselves with “souvenir” linens, today’s larceny-minded travelers are ripping off hair dryers, coffee makers, lamps, cable-TV boxes, fire extinguishers, small appliances and furniture.

“I think there are people who look at a hotel stay almost like a shopping trip,” says Anita Kramer, executive vice president of the California Lodging Industry Assn.

Linens remain the hottest items on guests’ lists. Renier Milan, rooms manager at the LAX Doubletree Inn, estimates that theft-replacement consumes about 30% of his six-figure linen budget. Erlene Gaskin, a manager at the Sheraton Anaheim, loses 25,000 towels a year. She says she has spent about $80,000 to replace missing towels thus far this year. The Anaheim Hilton reports that 34,199 washcloths left the premises in 1993.

As for pricier items, gaskin says guests who request overnight use of a hair dryer “take it almost every time nowadays.” Don Boyd, director of sales and marketing at Sheraton Universal in Universal City, has noticed a run on irons ad ironing boards. And Ann Flower of the Regent Beverly Wilshire recalls that when she worked at another posh hostelry, “people took things out of the public areas: artwork, tables--they’d pull them right off the wall.” And how exactly do people make off with love seats? No sweat, says Gaskin: “People would think: ‘Oh, they’re just taking it to clean it or fix it or whatever.”’

Hotels are not quite throwing in the towel. “A guest who asks for a hair dryer can only use it for an hour,” says Gaskin, “then house-keeping comes back and gets it.” To decrease souvenir value, hotels are shying away from logo-imprinted items. They are also taking sizable deposits from cash customers. The L.A. Bonaventure is among many hotels that have secured their TVs in massive furniture consoles. “Anyone who wants the TV has to take the whole armoire,” says security director Bob Schaeffer. Some Hotels are also making use of electronic surveillance. Results have been mixed. “I’ve worked at places,” says Boyd, “where they’ve taken the security cameras.”