No More Towels: Hotels Embed Chips to Prevent You From Stealing Them

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Stop right there. Put the towel down.

The best part about lounging around in a swanky hotel? The plush bathrobes, the fresh towels… none that you will ever get to take home.

A Florida-based company, Linen Trackers, has recently patented a chip designed to keep track of “souvenirs” that seem to have disappeared. And yes, there are some hotels that are already using it.

The chip isn’t that widespread yet (phew) but three hotels in New York, Miami and Honolulu have already implemented the technology. According to NewsFeed, hotels can often lose 5 to 20 percent of their towels and linens.

By using radio frequencies, the chip hones in on sandal-wearing, bathrobe-lounging thieves. The technology lasts about 300 wash cycles. Does it work? Apparently, it does. The device has been successful in busting dangerous tourists on the loose.

The executive president of Linen Trackers says when his friends travel now, they call him. He always asks, “Are you guys at my hotel?”

(via NewsFeed)

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pks29733steel

I wonder how much (dollar wise)this has added to their average hotel’s price? Is is it costing more to put up the sensors, insert the devices into the linens and have someone monitor it verus ‘it’s the cost of business’. Resturants have broken plates, ruined napkins. Golf course have missing balls and clubs. Is the cost worth it?
RichardSRussell

When I was a kid, somebody told me that hotel accountants record towels etc. under “advertising”, on the theory that people are GOING to run off with them and ever afterward see the hotel’s name on a daily basis in their own bathrooms.
http://freechina1234.wordpress.com fg1view

If you catch a custom take the towel what would you do? Call the police? Those people are you every day custom,if you catch them once I don’t think they will ever return. For every 5 dollar you recovered you will lose hundred dollar more.