The following rules apply to guests: Is buying shampoo from the hotel theft?

Annette Rupp, legal advice expert at umbrella organization Hotelleriesuisse, says: “From a purely legal perspective, the hotel can file a criminal complaint for any item taken as it constitutes theft.” Whether it’s a towel, soap or a ballpoint pen. Each guest signs a guest accommodation contract when they stay the night at the hotel. “This means you can use all the items in the hotel room, but you are not allowed to take them with you,” Rupp says.

Where hotels ignore

In practice, hotels are not this strict. “Most companies are lenient when it comes to consumer products like small shampoos, soaps or bath finches,” Rupp says. This is Ascona TI, St. Confirmed by Constanze Grossmann (32), PR director of “The Tschuggen Collection”, which includes luxury hotels in Moritz GR and Arosa GR: “Guests are allowed to take items that we cannot use a second time”, says. These include swimming finches as well as scallops.

For sustainability reasons, hotels are increasingly providing guests with large shampoo or soap dispensers. These are not intended to be taken away but can usually be purchased from reception.

Nespresso cups or bathrobes are particularly popular

But items much more valuable than bath finches or soaps are also disappearing from hotels. “Our guests regularly take towels with them,” says Thorsten Fink (49), manager of the 3-star Waldstätterhof Hotel in Lucerne. He encountered much more brazen guests during his tenure as general manager of several Swiss luxury hotels. “Coffee machines, pillows and coat hangers were stolen.”

Bathrobes with the hotel’s logo, Nespresso cups with saucers and spoons, large shampoo and shower gel bottles, and spa bags have proven particularly popular. “The damage caused by these so-called trifles is enormous,” Fink says. 200 robes worth about 50 francs were lost each season, which meant a loss of approximately 10,000 francs. According to the hotelier, it is difficult to prove theft later. “When bathrobes go missing, guests often say they left them at the spa.”

When a bill arrives

If it is certain that an item has been stolen from the hotel room, the property may send guests an invoice with the relevant amount. Hotels are also allowed to charge guests’ credit cards, according to Rupp. “But that only works if they can prove theft, which is difficult.”

This is usually done with items in the mini bar that the guest consumes but does not specify. Bottles of water served at the table are often considered a welcome gift and are free.