It’s not like this is something new, but it’s starting to become somewhat worrisome when we see the high percentage of bad behaviour in hotel accommodation. And perhaps the most striking thing about all of this is that nobody seems to be ashamed by their behaviour, many happily boast about it and are even encouraged to do so by family and friends before leaving home to go on holidays.
While certain isolated incidents may seem exceptional, when the numbers go up, this indicates to us that these shameless anecdotes start to result in bad habits, which are sadly accepted by many.
Actions such as smoking out the window, or stealing towels and food, or even putting more guests in the room than registered, are among the main things many Spaniards have no problem doing while staying at a hotel. The data comes from a recent survey carried out by the accommodation search engine and comparator, Hotelscan.com. The company’s team conducted a survey among tourists over the age of 18 from all over Europe who had stayed in a hotel while on holidays in the last two years to see how hotel rules were being broken and detect the most commonly reported bad behaviour.
The numbers:
The results are quite surprising, and the ones who come out worst are the Spanish. 90% of Spaniards surveyed admit to breaking the rules and ignoring bans at some time, followed closely by Italians (87%), Portuguese (82%). The British were not as bad as those in the south of Europe, with 78%, and 67% of the French recognised their bad behaviour.
Of this 90% of Spaniards who broke the rules, 70% of them admitted to having stolen breakfast food at the buffet to eat later, while in 53% of the cases they said they had smoked leaning out the windows in non-smoking rooms. These are things that we might say the hotel could understand or consider irrelevant, although nobody wants to be caught for activating the smoke detector in their room.
Other violations of the rules included stealing towels and bathrobes (42%), while 35% of those surveyed admitted to drinking bottles from the minibar and refilling them with water, tea or apple juice. Gin, rum and vodka were the most consumed as they were easily refilled with water, but whiskey was also popular among the thefts admitted.
The survey also revealed that 70% knew before leaving their homes that they were going to do it, while 30% said it was more a spur of the moment thing. Furthermore, 80% of those surveyed said the idea came from friends and family who recognised they had done it before in other hotels.
Another of the wrongdoings detected was leaving towels on the sun-loungers by the pool all day to “reserve” their favourite places, 28% of those surveyed admitted to this, 8% said they used the pool after closing time, and in 10% of the responses, people admitted to sneaking other people into their rooms.
Faced with this dishonest and antisocial behaviour, many hotels have started to take measures by putting prices on the bathrobes and towels to entice guests to buy them or putting microchips in the tags to trigger alarms as they leave the hotel. Some hotels are even charging their credit cards later on if they detect extra drinks taken from the minibar, or that other people also stayed in the room.
