20 Things You Probably Shouldn’t Be Doing in a Hotel Room

Wide shot of suitcase at end of bed in luxury hotel roomWide shot of suitcase at end of bed in luxury hotel roomThomas Barwick/Getty Images

A hotel stay done the right way

Staying in a hotel is one of the great joys of travel: It puts you near the action and, best of all, lets you live it up without ever having to make your own bed or wash your own towels. But while we’re probably all guilty of letting our guard down and cutting loose a little too much on vacation (um, spring break memories, anyone?), staying in a hotel or motel means following some basic rules of etiquette, hygiene and common sense.

After all, even though you’re a paying guest, you’re still a guest on someone else’s property, much like being a houseguest. So just as you wouldn’t swipe things from a friend’s house, there are rules for what things you can (and can’t) take from a hotel. And make sure your offers to help out are appreciated, unlike these so-called polite habits hotel workers dislike.

Pulling from our own travel experiences and consulting travel professionals, we’ve created this list of things you might be doing at a hotel or all-inclusive resort but really shouldn’t do. In coming up with this list, we found we’ve even been guilty of a few—though we’ve never stolen a bathrobe!

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