Clean Getaways: 89% of Brits help themselves to hotel ‘take-aways’

Brits lift 94 million bottles of shampoo from hotels each year

Each year, light fingered Brits are helping themselves to 94 million bottles of shampoo, 64 million sewing kits and 42 million plastic shower caps from hotel rooms, according to research from Hotels.com, the world’s most visited hotels booking site.*

89% of people surveyed admit to liberating an array of items from hotel rooms when away from home. Shampoo, shower gel, sewing kits and shower caps are amongst the favourite items for ‘freebie’ loving Brits. There is even a contingent who thinks nothing of taking towels and bed linen.

Favourite Hotel Take-Aways

Our favourite hotel
Number of items that Brits
take-aways
take from hotel rooms each year
Shampoo, shower gel Or conditioner
94 million
Sewing kits
64 million
Shower caps
42 million
Slippers
13 million
Towels
3 million
Do not disturb signs
4 million
Bath robes
2 million
Bed linen
1.2 million

Unusual hotel take-aways
When questioned about the most unusual items that people have taken from hotel rooms, rubber ducks, lamps, champagne buckets, ashtrays, shoe horns, and even a sample of paint from the wall were amongst strange array of items that Brits have slipped into their suitcases upon their departure.

Men vs Women
In the battle of the sexes, it seems that women are far more likely to indulge in ‘hotel take-aways’ than men; 90% of women admitted to having taken items from hotel rooms opposed to just 83% of men.

Freebie lovers around the UK
Across the UK it is the Scots who are most likely to help themselves to a hotel ‘freebie’ (91%). This is closely followed by Londoners and Southerners (90%.) On the other hand, the Northern Irish are the least inclined to help themselves – a quarter (24%) said that they had never taken anything from a hotel room.

Hotel takeaways across the UK

Region % of Brits who have helped themselves to 'hotel takeaways'
Scotland 91%
London and the South East 90%
The South West 90%
North East 88%
North West 88%
Wales 87%
Midlands 87%
Northern Ireland 76%

Guilty consciences?
However, the majority of us don’t feel guilty about ‘helping ourselves’ in hotels - half of Brits surveyed (48%) said that hotels put these things there expecting guests to help themselves, and a quarter (26%) said that these items should be included in the price anyway. Only 10% felt at all guilty.

When it comes to having a guilty conscience - rather than accepting the responsibility for taking these hotel ‘trophies’, just over half of hotel guests (58%) said they think hotels should replace plastic shampoo and shower gel bottles with large wall mounted dispensers to avoid them being pilfered. One in ten people (9%) also suggested that hotels should install alarms on towels and bathrobes to avoid them being taken.

Alison Couper, Director of Communications for Hotels.com EMEA, comments: “It is clear that Brits love a freebie and taking the added extras from hotel rooms are no exception – many people even consider these items to be included in the price. The research also shows that the Brits are becoming more daring in what they take graduating from shampoo bottles and shower caps to paint samples from the wall!”

*The survey was carried out amongst 1,400 adults on www.hotels.com in February 2008

Hotels.com is the world’s most visited hotels bookings site and the global hotels specialist. Hotels.com offers a guaranteed price promise. If a customer can find the same deal for less, Hotels.com will match it. It also has one of the largest independent hotel teams in the industry working with over 39,000 hotels worldwide – meaning that users get an honest review of all the properties.

For further information visit www.hotels.com or call 0871 200 0171.