Among the drawbacks of carrying on your bags when you fly is that you can’t fill them with nearly as many hotel amenities as you once could. Remember when luggage was so volumnious you could walk unnoticed out of a hotel with a TV, and perhaps even a light fixture or two?
Complicating the problem is that many hotels now expect you to take certain items, items that for promotional purposes usually have the hotel logo branded on them. But since there is no uniform set of rules, it is difficult to know what branded amenities you can tuck away without being labeled a kleptomaniac or, even worse, abtuctor of mini bars.
The W Hotels in particular leave me feeling uncertain about what is expected, as I am reminded at the W Barcelona, where I could just about fill up a steamer trunk with items banded with the upscale chain’s single-letter logo — and another steamer trunk filled with items that are not.
The W notepads, post cards, book marks, key cards, Do Not Disturb signs, and napkins that came with my welcome drink are clearly mine if I want them. And surely the laundry bag and the slippers, both of flimsy, throw-away material, are meant for me to keep, and would fit nicely in a carry-on bag. But the clothes-hangers, robes, towels, telephone, iPod dock, and giant letter W fixed to the hotel’s facade, probably not.
So how do you judge if removing a hotel amenity would be theft?
It is not branded.
At the W Barcelona, that means I have to leave the throw pillows, bedspreads, curtains, flat-screen TV, desk, and sofa, all of which wouldn’t fit in my carry-on anyway. (Oddly, the bathroom items do not carry the W logo, which is a disappointment to an amenities collector who has not purchased soap or shampoo since about 1983.
It has a card attached stating how much it costs.
At the W Barcelona, for instance, a bottle of Bacardi rum, accompanied by the mixers necessary for making a mojito martini, costs $22 Euros.
You would need a screwdriver to remove it.
That eliminates most art work, the wall mirrors, the shower head, and the bathroom vanity.
A charge for it appears on your credit card.
This has never happened to me, at a W.
Reminds me of the tale of Richard Nixon in Madrid, probably back in the 1960s–he apparently liked the very large crystal ashtray in his hotel room so much, he left with it in his suitcase. Seems as though someone could have seen the writing on the wall…