Travelers are stealing everything from airport lounges that isn’t bolted down. That surprises me, because there’s nowhere with more cameras watching you than inside an airport. There’s nowhere with more law enforcement agencies (DEA, CBP, FBI, TSA, local police to name a few). And every passenger in the lounge has identified themselves when checking in.
Take Capital One lounges, where they’re actually planning for theft. These lounges have interesting, artistic cups. But it’s not just the part of the cup that you see, take a look at what’s underneath them.
You’re not supposed to take the cups, but they also know that people are going to do it anyway – so they might as well get a branding benefit out of it. Here’s the one from the lounge in Las Vegas,
On permanent loan from Capital One Lounge
Here’s the bottom from the Capital One lounge at Washington Dulles.
I’ve been told that passengers were taking artwork from Capital One lounges (they now have to be bolted down) and books from the bathrooms.
Capital One Las Vegas Lounge Bathroom
Capital One Washington Dulles Lounge Bathroom
Who takes the books from the bathroom like they never saw that ‘Seinfeld’ episode?
People take flatware from their meals on planes. I’m sure they’re taking the utensils from Capital One lounges, from American Express lounges, and indeed anything else off of the buffets that can be taken without making a mess.
Delta Sky Club customers were getting scolded for stealing fruit but at least that’s a consumable you’re supposed to take as long as you’re eating it in the lounge (and taking a single banana with you seems more than reasonable, Capital One actually has a ‘grab and go’ designed to encourage passengers to take food from their lounges). Taking the artwork, furniture, and forks is something else altogether.
Of course, this behavior is incredibly common at hotels as well. In fact, it’s even more common there. You don’t have carry-on limits!
A single hotel has saved $16,000 per month by reducing its towel thefts each month from 4,000 down to 750 by attaching washable RFID tags to its towels. I assume that they aren’t actually tracking down towel thieves, rather by letting guests know that the towels are tagged this serves as a deterrent. Presumably the deterrent would work just as well by telling guests that the RFID tags are in the towels, without any need to make the actual investment, at least as long as they are able to keep their lack of technology investment a secret.
The Nairobi Hilton once prosecuted a guest for stealing two towels and they received a two year sentence. One study found that guest nationality correlated with preference for stealing specific kinds of things from hotels:
- Germans and Brits mainly take towels, bathrobes, and toiletries
- Austrians prefer dishes and coffee machines
- Americans often steal pillows and batteries
- Italians favor wine glasses
- French target TVs and remote controls
Forty nine hotels reported mattresses being stolen in a two year period. How does a guest even do this without getting caught? Even if staff don’t notice guests walking through the lobby with a mattress, when housekeeping goes into the room to turn it for the next guest, and finds the mattress gone, the hotel knows who stayed there last!
In 2018 a family was caught on video in Bali with items stolen from the hotel they stayed at packed in their luggage. The hotel demanded they open their bags for inspection and a big argument ensued. As the bags are searched one stolen item after another gets revealed.
We’ve heard about a grand piano stolen from a Sheraton lobby, and about guests who steal televisions from their room. Even door hinges have been stolen. The Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire (the Pretty Woman hotel) had a fireplace stolen.
I used to not worry about leaving my belongings unattended in an airport lounge – or at least in a first class lounge. The broader access, busier lounges might be a different story. But I figured, if passengers had access to first class lounges then surely they’re not going to take my stuff? It isn’t all that valuable to begin with! It turns out that’s probably the wrong model.
People take stuff even when the stuff isn’t valuable, or useful, or when there’s any good reason for doing so at all – and when they could easily be caught, too. The correct mental model seems to be that people are terrible – or at least some percentage of people are, no matter where you go.
“Ain’t no rule that says a (card member) can’t play (petty theft)…” *woof*
@1990 – Why not, in a communist state the people own everything. I guess they are just remodeling their part of the world.
Michael, what does that even mean?
I like the pens at Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons
While I suppose no part of the world is immune, I do note that packing up piles of food from lounges in the States is quite common. Fortunately, it seems to be an out of the ordinary experience in the Senator lounges in FRA.
But no matter what country it takes place in, I keep asking myself WTF is wrong with these people? Back in the olden days (60’s and 70’s), you got membership when you became a million miler for an airline. But now, for a few hundred bucks a year, just about anyone can have a club membership, and steal them blind.
My virginity was stolen at a Hilton. It was never seen again.
I steal pens in St.Regis hotels . Yes I admit.
I steal pens in St.Regis hotels . Yes I admit.. and sometimes an apple in centurion lounges
@ Michael — These arr probably just Trump admin employees, ready for their blanket pardons.
I once stayed in a decent hotel in a tourist city in China. Everything in the room that was even remotely likely to be stolen had a price tag on it. When you went to check out, before they settled the bill, someone would go up to your room and take inventory. The price of anything that was missing was added to your bill.
Loved the video of the Indian family being busted at the Bali hotel with stolen hotel items hidden in nearly every bag. Instant karma is such a bitch! Wonder if they got a magic carpet ride to the local jail?
Hence the current state of airport lounges, it’s just sad what they have become.
I don’t care where a person is from, their station in life, or their politics or pedigree. If you steal stuff you are a low class hick. Perhaps that’s what many aspire to be.
Check out the running gag of the kleptomaniac in “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium”.
Funny gags on tourists throughout the movie.
Available on Prime Video.
Well, Airport lounges & those soles who fly commercially have devolved equally with riding Greyhound.
@Michael Mainello — I was doing an Air Bud… *woosh*
In the first episode of this season’s Clarkson’s Farm, Clarkson reports that his pub has 400 glasses stolen each week. (S5:E1 at 23:50 if you care.)
I just don’t see how adults think this is OK.
When I was younger, and poorer, theft was considered to be a source of shame. You also never show up empty-handed to someone’s house and you never deny them anything you have. You don’t want people to know you are desperate or rationing.
Upper middle class and rich people just feel complete lack of shame in acting like sociopaths with any type of common good. They take and take. Show up empty-handed. Become more stingy with what they do have.
Given how much we stigmatize people committing crimes rotted in desperation, this is just a wild contrast. Oh, and nobody goes to jail for stealing the art off the walls.
@Brent — I applaud your new-found class-consciousness. Welcome, bruther!
It’s called kleptomania and it is real. And for many — not just women, but more women then men, for sure — it is a sexual thrill.
Does not matter how “average” your stuff is, Gary, they’ll take it, and indeed in first class lounges too. It is not about the value of ill gotten goods, it is about being able to break the law.
Obviously not everyone will steal for sexual urge, but way more than “one in a thousand” will.
I confess that I steal the branded pen from any hotel room I stay in. But in the past I used to take the toiletry bottles. Stopped when my dermatologist told me to only use dermatologist recommended soap shampoo and lotion. About RFID tagging – I notice that many hotels now have cards on things (including wall-mounted bottles) that say something like “this is for your use in-room, please contact front desk if you want new one to take with you”. Im guessing the unspoken message is if you take the one in your room, then THAT one will be on your room folio at checkout!
Pens, toiletteries that are for use during stay, sure. But anything else is tacky. When I took a shower in the AA lounge in Miami last year I wondered how many pocketed the Dyson hair drier after use.