By Steve Taggart
Ever stole the posh soaps? nicked a towel? maybe even a tv?! Well you are not alone, research has today revealed almost a quarter of Britons disregard manners in hotels and treat rooms with far less respect than at home.
The survey by lastminute.com has revealed Brits’ wasteful behaviour in hotels with 33% of those polled saying they have no problem leaving the lights on all day and a fifth (21%) using fresh towels everyday whether they are dirty or not, one in six (16%) ran a bath to use up the hot water and two fifths (39%) of people don’t bother to make the bed. One in 20 even admitted to using a hotel room to host a party, to the annoyance of other guests.
It’s not just messy behaviour that’s kept behind closed hotel doors; one in 20 revealed they have cheated on their partner, with some even stating they remove wedding rings for the duration of their stay. One in ten regularly check-in to a hotel under a false name to avoid detection.
Football players (28%), Disney comics (25%), politicians (23%) and even our bosses (8%) prove the popular sources of inspiration for false check-in names with characters such as Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop and Donald Duck cited as favourite names to prevent Brits from getting tracked down in hotels.
Men were revealed as the worst when it came to hotel behaviour with twice as many men (29%) admitting to treating hotel rooms badly, compared to 18% of women. Both men and women are as tempted by toiletries – the most commonly pilfered item from rooms ahead of pens, tea bags and notepads.
Brits from Coventry, Birmingham and Portsmouth were revealed as the worst behaved and the most likely to get asked to leave a hotel before their stay was finished. Making too much noise and drunken parties were the top reasons for getting kicked out of hotel rooms.
It seems naughty hotel behaviour starts the moment we walk into reception – one in ten Brits nonchalantly make up stories when checking into a hotel to get a room upgrade or a better service which paid off for a staggering 85% of travellers. Pretending it’s their birthday, an anniversary or planning a proposal are just some of the lies people use to blag an upgrade.
Martin Kleinman, director of hotel supply at lastminute.com commented:
“Our research reveals that many Brits lead a bit of a hotel double life and get up to all sorts when away from home. Two in five of us check into a hotel to break our routine and over a quarter just want to spontaneously get away from it all. For most it’s about relaxing and hanging out, but for some it’s morphing into Mickey Mouse or fibbing their way to an upgrade.”
Brits’ top 5 tactics to blag a hotel room upgrade:
1. Pretend it was my birthday (46%)
2. Pretend it was our anniversary (36%)
3. Pretend we were on honeymoon (31%)
4. Pretend to propose to my partner during this stay (16%)
5. Pretend I was a VIP (13%)