Who is Stealing From Your Timeshare?

The people at LivingSocial recently conducted an interview with more than 5000 travelers; 4000 from the US and another 1600 responding from around the world. What they learned from this data sampling, which was not limited to LivingSocial members, may surprise you. Read on to find out how we vacation and who is bring home more than memories from their timeshare vacation.

First, let’s start with the fact, that here in the US, we are better traveled than we, or the rest of the world, perceives us to be. Although as a culture, Americans are not thought of by themselves or by others as worldly and well traveled, 78 percent of Americans have visited at least one foreign country, 61 percent have visited multiple countries, and 36 percent have traveled to four or more countries outside the US.

Bringing Home More than Memories from Your Timeshare Vacation

As Americans travel the world, we are bringing home more than memories from our holidays and vacations. Nearly 40 percent of all US travelers in this survey say they have stolen something from their hotel or timeshare during their vacation. Most often, the item stolen is towels, with bathrobes being the second most popular item to ‘find its way into our luggage.’

39+ percent have stolen from their hotel or timeshare during a visit. The most popular items to steal are:

• 28 percent of US travelers have stolen towels.
• 8 percent of US travelers have stolen bathrobes.
• 5 percent of US travelers have stolen batteries.
• 4 percent of US travelers have stolen pillows.
• 3 percent of US travelers have stolen remote controls.
• 3 percent of US travelers have stolen sheets.
• 3 percent of US travelers have stolen Bibles. (Does the 8^th Commandment come into play here?)
• 3 percent of US travelers have stolen umbrellas.

Timeshare Theft vs. Hotel Theft

Because the survey does not break down the travelers into hotel guests as compared to timeshare guests or timeshare owners, we can’t tell if there are differences in who is more or less likely to steal from their vacation and travel accommodations. Perhaps timeshare owners feel that they already “own” a piece of their timeshare and stealing really isn’t stealing but is covered by their payments and annual fees … maybe they even consider they are “borrowing” from their own resort.

On the other hand, it is very possible that timeshare owners feel they are vested in their resort or vacation ownership and therefore steal less from a timeshare than hotel guests steal from a hotel. Since the survey does not go into that level of detail, we may never know.