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For the actual information from the survey see this link: https://www.channel3000.com/lifestyle/the-surprising-things-stolen-from-luxury-hotel-rooms/1149593225
by neaden 7y ago
For the actual information from the survey see this link: https://www.channel3000.com/lifestyle/the-surprising-things-stolen-from-luxury-hotel-rooms/1149593225 https://www.channel3000.com/lifestyle/the-surprising-things-...
49 out of 1,157 hotels in the survey reported having a mattress stolen.
"Whereas many four-star hotels have taken to tagging their items to trigger alarms when smuggled off the premises, five-star hotels are less likely to confront thieves or to report the theft to police, Keilmann told CNN.
"In a lot of cases, they don't report it to the police, because they don't want to be connected to crime," Keilmann said."
This makes me think that these people are only staying at the hotel to steal things and choosing hotels accordingly, presumably using a stolen credit card as well to make them harder to track.
- dmix 7y agoIt’s funny the lengths they’ll go to not have the police walking around the hotels and potentially getting in the news. People can be so touchy with the thought of crime being done in a hotel. I know the sort of person (hotel guest) who would overreact to that sort of thing.
- leeoniya 7y agonot such great lengths if you ask me. having even one customer turn away from an upscale hotel isn't worth recovering a $700 item, let alone doing this on an ongoing basis.
- praptak 7y agoMy guess would be the hotel just charging their credit card for the cost of replacing the item.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoYou can just do a chargeback. Merchant agreements with card issues forbid charging the card for anything other than what the cardholder explicitly agrees to.
- Scoundreller 7y agoIt’s probably in the agreement. There might even be a price list in the unit somewhere too.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoI know from personal experience. The issuing bank will state they are not responsible for damages etc etc. Maybe you might win if the cardholder admits to stealing or smoking in a room AND admits to knowing about the fine, but that's never going to happen.
- heelix 7y agoI have very different expectations on how Marriott reacts to me smuggling in a bit of booze vs the TSAs reaction.
- sokoloff 7y agoCouldn’t you openly carry booze into a Marriott? It would never occur to me to worry about it in the least.
- rbritton 7y agoI worked at a hotel for ten years. You’d be amazed at the number of things that are suppressed. Dead bodies, bed bugs, etc all happen far more frequently than you’d think but are cleaned up quietly and quickly.
- oefrha 7y agoBed bugs sounds like the cost of doing business, but are you serious about dead bodies? How do you clean those up “quietly and quickly”?
- 52-6F-62 7y agoBetty fetches the lye will Jim brings up a barrel from the custodial locker?
- walrus01 7y agoStatistically if you have a hotel with 300 rooms and tens of thousands of individual night guest stays over many years, people definitely will randomly die of natural causes. Same as if they were in bed at home.
- adriand 7y agoSuicides are common in hotels because people don’t want to burden their loved ones with the shock of finding their body or having to clean up the mess.
- ben509 7y agoPick a time during the day while most guests are out. Put the body in a body bag, load it on a stretcher. Take the service lift to avoid the lobby.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoNo hotel deals with bodies themselves. They will call the police.
- 7y ago
- Spooky23 7y agoHoteliers are always in a balance between seeing or not seeing things. Guests are too. Hotels service the public, and people's outlook on life vary greatly. If you have a bunch of cops getting to know everyone every time a lamp is stolen at a fancy hotel, they may recognize the escort at the bar, or notice some person of note with someone other than their partner. Usually hotels have security folks who interface with the police only when necessary. One time I was at a beach resort where there were 4 big groups: an association of retired DEA or FBI agents, Chick-Fil-A franchise operators regional meeting, a (very) large same-sex wedding complete with a troupe of drag queen dancers, and a CBD-oil MLM scheme sales meeting. Everyone was best off minding their business!
- avaku 7y agoI love that beach situation ;)
- smokey_the_bear 7y agoI was once at a hotel for a high school quiz bowl tournament. There was also a (very drunk) darts competition, and a Shibari meetup (Japanese bondage + furries?). There were some awkward elevator rides.
- cbanek 7y agoIf this was in Chicago, pretty sure I was there for this. It was indeed a very interesting time! If not, I think it's hilarious that this could have happened multiple times!
- skyyler 7y agoOnce a year, the furries gather in Chicago. It's quite a sight.
- smokey_the_bear 7y agoYes, Chicago. I doubt it has happened again, the quiz bowl organization took steps to prevent similar conflicts.
- neaden 7y agoBack in the day they used to have Hotel Detectives, one of whose key roles were preventing premarital sex or affairs from occurring. I think Hotel Detectives are almost totally gone now, but the attitude of protecting the hotel from scandal hasn't.
- Rychard 7y agoBecause it was posted to HN a few days ago, I checked the Wikipedia category for "Obsolete occupations"[1] to see if this might have been listed, but alas, it wasn't in the cards. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Obsolete_occupations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Obsolete_occupations
- mixmastamyk 7y agoHow does one add a category to an article to get it listed? Just figured it out. Should show when approved.
- 8bitsrule 7y agoHere's a humorous take on the old stereotype. "Unlike the private eye, he's not a romantic figure; he's paid by the hour and probably on the take. Maybe he has a little drinking problem. He...turns up. He always has, at least as far back as July 30, 1917, when two New York hotel detectives caught then-senator Warren G. Harding in bed with an underage girl ..." https://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/behind-closed-doors https://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/behind-closed-door...
- mturmon 7y agoGood point. This character is a staple of many old novels and films -- Arthur Hailey's novel Hotel (1965, adapted as a movie) has such a detective, who is corrupt and mainly wants to extract bribes from any guest who breaks a rule.
- FDSGSG 7y agoDuring a longer stay a FS property planted a bunch of ozone generators and an IQair unit outside our suite to cover up the weed smell. They never said anything, didn't even charge a smoking fee.
- coldtea 7y ago>It’s funny the lengths they’ll go to not have the police walking around the hotels and potentially getting in the news. Well, not really great lengths. Luxury hotels I know of can charge anything between 1K to 20K for a night's stay. Once in a while having a mattress they've mass bought for like $100 stole is hardly a big inconvenience...
- brianwawok 7y agoLuxury hotel beds are not $100
- megablast 7y agoWow, they cost even less? Amazing.
- wongarsu 7y agoI imagine there's a big price difference between buying one mattress and buying a hundred of them.
- coldtea 7y agoI didn't say beds, I said mattresses. I don't think people steal beds. As for mattresses now, with bulk buying it can be even less.
- joshmn 7y ago> presumably using a stolen credit card as well to make them harder to track. Credit card fraud expert here: It's very unwise to book a hotel room with a stolen credit card — trust me, I would know. Carders aren't stupid either, especially the guys that do in-store stuff. Plus, to check-in, you still need a card for incidentals; you need an ID to check in. Obviously, those can also be acquired, but... There are lots of other things that are easier to flip than mattresses that could be had with less effort and less risk. Why don't they just card a mattress online? Those lighting fixtures? There are thousands of small online stores with bad/poor/non-existent fraud prevention practices outside their processor that would love to ship them to non-billing.
- csomar 7y agoYou don't need a "fake" credit card; just one from these online debit card "fintech". Luxury hotels, if you are business-dressed, will not ask for the bill payment until checkout (at least the few I tried). So you can get away with paying the bill without even needing to steal a credit card.
- stordoff 7y ago> you need an ID to check in Not necessarily - it depends on the hotel. I've twice booked a hotel in London recently, with a card that is not in my name, and checked in with nothing more than giving my name.
- coldtea 7y ago>This makes me think that these people are only staying at the hotel to steal things and choosing hotels accordingly, presumably using a stolen credit card as well to make them harder to track. If they have a stolen credit card capable of getting charged into an expensive luxury hotel, they can do far lower risk / higher reward things than go into a hotel, use the card and risk arrest, to steal a mattress. People really do steal things, even if they are rich. Tons of rich cleptomaniacs, and lots of others who are not addicted to stealing, but wouldn't think twice about getting a matresss from a hotel.