by Donald Wood
Last updated: 1:30 PM ET, Tue December 10, 2019
A new study found that hotel guests in Europe have become more brazen when they steal things from their rooms, with some going as far as taking the mattress.
According to The Metro, a study from spa and hotel review website Wellness Heaven found that 4.2 percent of the 1,157 properties that participated have reported a mattress going missing following a guest's stay.
While leaving with a mattress through an employee elevator meant for transporting larger goods doesn't happen often, hoteliers reported having many other items stolen regularly, including "towels, bathrobes, hangers, pens, cutlery, cosmetics and even batteries."
In addition, the survey found that 9.1 percent of respondents said guests had taken the remote control and another seven percent indicated travelers have absconded with light bulbs from lamps and other light fixtures.
"The most astonishing thing we've ever had stolen from the hotel is a TV, and on a smaller scale, we are forever having batteries stolen from remotes," The Club Hotel & Spa in Jersey General Manager Tim Philips told The Metro.
At one Italian hotel, three men in overalls entered the lobby and walked out the front door with a grand piano. At another resort in Austria, the theft of wooden benches from the sauna went unnoticed until a guest complained about a lack of seating.
The thievery goes both ways, though, as a man who owned a chain of hotels in Mississippi was arrested earlier this year at a Tennessee airport for allegedly stealing luggage from the baggage carousel.
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