Hospitality Industry Risk: Smaller Hotels Reporting An “Epidemic” In Theft Of Flat Screen TV’s From Rooms Prompting Many Operators To Install Camera Systems

The theft prompted him to take action, investing in a $1,500 camera system to monitor the walkways outside rooms and, hopefully, he said, act as a deterrent to other would-be thieves.

(From a ReporterNews.com article)   Theft is “frequent enough we have to make a large order every month for linens and supplies we shouldn’t have to,” said Jo Ann Schibi, manager of the MCM Elegante Hotel. “It’s the hotel business. It’s been like this forever.”

Perhaps, but missing televisions have upped the ante for some victimized hotels in Abilene.

Dasi Reddy, owner of the Knights Inn Civic Plaza Hotel downtown, said he’s had six or seven televisions taken from rooms in the past 14 months.

At Motel 6 just west of town and near Interstate 20, eight flat-screen televisions were reported stolen March 7 from an unoccupied room, just two days after a 32-inch television had been reported stolen from a hotel room.

Local staff at the Motel 6 declined to comment, and police were unavailable Friday to discuss the case.

But TV thefts were described as “a new epidemic for us” by Laura Rojo-Eddy, director of corporate communications for Accor North America, the parent company of Motel 6.

The chain began renovations in the second-half of 2008 that included the addition of flat-screen televisions to rooms. With the flat-screen televisions, however, more thefts have followed, said Rojo-Eddy.

“I guess they’re smaller and easier to carry,” said Rojo-Eddy. “The industry kind of has had a problem to take care of them.”

For hotel operators, the losses hurt the bottom line during an economic recession that has included a sharp decrease in travel spending.

With an insurance deductible that doesn’t cover a $200 loss, Reddy said he mainly has paid for the replacement televisions himself.

Several items — including a television, microwave and ice machine — turned up missing March 12 after the departure of guests staying through a church outreach program, Reddy said.

“We want to help them,” said Reddy, who charges churches a reduced rate when they are helping house homeless or other displaced people. The church sponsoring the stay has been able to return some of the missing items to the hotel, he noted.

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2010/mar/19/stolen-tvs-trouble-hotels/