The most commonly stolen hotel item isn't soap or coffee, study shows

Last time you stayed in a hotel room, did you take anything home with you from the room? Maybe you pilfered the tea selection or pocketed a bottle of shampoo?

It turns out that's a habit most of us are committing every time we stay in a nice hotel.

A recent study of hoteliers conducted by Wellness Heaven Hotel Guide found that while it's common for people to take pens or slippers, some bold guests have even tried taking TVs or mattresses with them as they leave.

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While taking soap or a pen is fine - if not encouraged - how far would you go in taking things from your hotel room?

Wellness Heaven found that the number one item stolen by guests is towels, followed by bathrobes and hangers.

However, some hoteliers told stories of brazen theft in their hotels.

In a hotel in England, a guest had removed the numbers from his hotel room door. "We didn't notice until the next guest could not find his room", the hotel director said.

A Berlin hotel reported that very one very handy guest had stolen an entire sink, while others had guests who managed to steal bathroom fixtures, the head of a rain shower, a hydromassage shower, and a toilet seat.

The survey of 1376 hoteliers found a few patterns in the countries.

In Germany and Britain, hotel guests tended to take cosmetics and towels.

In Italy, however, wine glasses were one of the most common souvenirs taken home by guests.

Austrian hotels noticed a marked number of in-room coffee machines going missing, while for Americans, pillows and batteries were often packed away.

Hotel guests in The Netherlands, meanwhile, went for the more practical: light bulbs and toilet paper.

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In five-star hotels, artwork, mattresses and TVs were more likely to be lifted. Nearly 12 per cent of five-star hotel managers have had mattresses stolen, while only 2.2 per cent of four-star hotels said the same.

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Perhaps the most impressive theft of all wasn't from a room, but from a hotel lobby.

"Once I walked through the lobby, I noticed that something was missing, and soon after I learned that three unknown men in overalls had taken away the grand piano, and it never reappeared, of course," one anonymous hotel manager in Italy shared.