Many travelers bring home souvenirs of the cities they’ve visited, and some bring home souvenirs of their hotels as well. And sometimes it’s not the little shampoo bottles, either!
Hotels.com, an Expedia subsidiary, recently surveyed 4700 travelers from 28 countries and found some big national differences in who takes stuff from hotels—or at least in who admits it. Only 27% of Argentinians, 29% of Singaporeans and 30% of Spaniards claimed to have taken something and not returned it; at the other end of the scale69% of Colombians and 67% of Norwegians, Koreans, Hong Kongers and Danes claim to have taken nothing. U.S. travelers rank in the middle at 47%.
So, what were the favorite takings? Surprisingly, it’s not the bigger items like towels and electronics that the hotels really miss. Chances are that’s not so easy to take, or to take with a clear conscience. The most reported items overall were stationery (20%), followed by slippers (12%), and then by the item that’s probably most often taken accidentally, electronic key cards (10%). For U.S. travelers, it’s stationery (28%), key cards (24%) and magazines (10%).
