It’s true! One in Five Australians steal from hotels when travelling

Always suspected your fellow Aussie is a scrooge when travelling? A LivingSocial survey finds one in five Australians admit to having stolen something from a hotel.

Australians are also more budget-focused than our American, Canadian, Irish and British counterparts, with more of us looking for the cheapest food, hotel, and transportation when we travel.

The LivingSocial holiday survey was conducted online in February 2012 among 400 Australians and 5200 additional respondents in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

The survey revealed, unsurprisingly, that towels are the most popular item stolen from hotels, while perhaps less subtle is walking out with the pillows (which 3% admitted to) or, less obvious, the remote control (which 2% admitted to).

The survey also debunks the myth that Australians are the most widely travelled tourists. According to the survey, Irish travellers have visited nine countries and the English seven countries, whereas Australians, have visited “only” six countries.

Anu Mohan, LivingSocial Australia and New Zealand VP Marketing, says: “Australians are big travellers but we can’t claim to be the most active globetrotters. Despite this, we should be proud of our exploring ways; six countries is impressive, especially given we have to travel overseas to get to another country.”

The survey found that Australians can’t switch off when they travel, with 66% admitting to checking their emails or phones whilst on holidays.

Statistics from the survey:

Sticky Fingers

22% of Australian travellers admitted to having stolen something from a hotel during a visit. The most common items poached were towels (admitted by 12% of respondents), bathrobes (admitted by 5%), batteries (3%), pillows (3%), sheets (3%) and remote controls (2%).

Tough to Cut the Cord

Two-thirds of respondents (66 %) said they check their e-mail or mobile phones while on holidays.

Holiday Horror Stories

Percentage of Australians who have experienced the following while travelling:

Overcharged by a salesperson	16%
Got extremely lost	14%
Hit by a weather disaster	12%
Had an injury, me%dical emergency or severe illness	11%
Airline lost luggage	11%
Missed flights or connecting transportation	10%
Blacked out or had a hangover from too much booze	9%
Got pickpocketed or robbed	8%
Ran out of cash or couldn’t get access to money	6%
Experienced local strikes or civil unres	6%
Got bitten by bed bugs	5%
Couldn’t find a bathroom in time	5%
Forgot or lost passport/ID	3%
Victim of scam	3%
Broke up with significant other	2%
Got arrested or had a run-in with the police	2%

World’s Worst Tourists

Percentage of Australians who say the country with the worst tourists is:

United States	30%
China	19%
India	18%
Japan	16%
France	12%
Gerrmany	12%
Australia	10%
Russia	9%
Korea	9%
UK	9%
The Netherlands	7%
Italy	6%
Ireland	3%
Switzerland	2%
Canada	2%
Spain	2%

 

Favourite Holiday Activities

Australian tourists’ favourite activities are:

Shopping	38%
Visiting historical sites or ruins	34%
Relaxing on the beach	33%
Eating in great restaurants	32%
Hiking or exploring the outdoors	18%
Camping	15%
Touring museums or galleries	15%
Relaxing in spas	14%
Hitting the rides at amusement or theme parks	13%
Going on cruises	11%
Going on safaris or animal-watching activitie	9%
Touring wineries or breweries	9%
Attending music events or festivals	8%
Gambling or playing the casino	7%
Diving or snorkeling	5%
Skiing or snowboarding the slopes	4%
Playing golf	3%
Volunteering during vacation	2%

 

Top 10 Dream Destinations

When given their choice of dozens of world wonders to visit, Australians picked their top 10 dream destinations as:

1	Pyramids of Giza Egypt	26%
2	Great Barrier Reef Australia	23%
3	The Great Wall of China China	20%
4	Eiffel Tower France	19%
5	Disney World Florida	19%
6	Las Vegas Nevada	17%
7	Antartica	16%
8	Las Vegas Nevada	14%
9	Stonehenge UK	13%
10	Machu Picchu Peru	13%

 

Australians out-rank 5 other countries as the most budget-focused travellers:

Australia	51.2%
USA	50.7%
Canada	46.1%
Irelamd	41.2%
UK	41.1%

 

Australians on average have travelled to 6 countries:

Ireland	9.51%
UK	7.77%
Australia	6.22%
Canada	4.89%
USA	4.46%

 

The LivingSocial holiday survey is part of LivingSocial’s ongoing efforts to discover and share information about local social trends and be-havior.

Methodology

The LivingSocial holiday survey was conducted online in February 2012 among 400 Australians and 5,200 additional respondents in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The survey was conducted by Mandala Research, LLC. Respondents were not limited to LivingSocial members.