JEDDAH, 7 January — Jeddah's hotels have devised a scheme to curb guests' increasing tendency to steal hotel property. The new measure, a discreet message placed at conspicuous locations in the rooms, including toilets, informs the guest that contents in the room could be had at an affordable price in the market.
Bathrobes top the list of objects which guests take when they check out. Therefore, the message placed in the bathroom reads, "Dear guest, you can have a nice bath robe for SR50." But there are several other items that can be pinched undetected. The list includes towels, shampoo, ashtrays and even clothes hangers. The hotel managements claim that the value of lost articles runs into millions of riyals annually.
The hotel employees are placed in an embarrassing situation when they find articles missing from the room in the presence of guests. Most managements avoid accusing their guests of stealing. However, there are also managements which demand that guests replace the missing article or pay its equivalent cost.
Saleh Al-Ghamdi, manager of the rooms section in the Red Sea Palace Hotel, says the phenomenon is common and "we suffer greatly from it". He adds that theft is noticed only after the guests have left. If it is discovered before the guest's check-out both the hotel official and the guest are put in a very embarrassing situation, he said.
Al-Ghamdi doesn't understand why guests of five-star hotels steal. However, he believes most theft is committed by those who stay in the hotel for the first time. They believe, according to Al-Ghamdi, that any removable item in the room belongs to them.
"Even very rich guests steal," according to Al-Ghamdi. He once caught a regular guest red-handed. The accused was the owner of a hotel chain in Cairo. The businessman explained that he did not take anything valuable. He claimed that he only took away robes and hangers as samples for his Egyptian hotels, Al-Ghamdi said.
"We check the rooms for any losses only after the guests leave," said assistant sales manager at the Jeddah Inter.Continental, Ghassan Al-Khateeb.
Sofitel's Nader Asa also described the problem as a very sensitive one as the hotel officials cannot accuse the customer directly. "Instead, we ask guests to check if they have not forgotten their belongings and also if they have mistakenly packed hotel property along with their things." (Al-Eqtisadiah)
