Basic Trope: A character takes items from a hotel room or rental property.
- Straight: Bob stays in a hotel for a business trip. When he leaves, he takes the towels and soap from the bathroom with him.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob takes the TV from the hotel room.
- Bob rents Alice's beach house when she isn't there. He ends up taking the actual property from her.
- Bob strips the hotel room bare, leaving behind just the walls and floor.
- Bob strips the hotel room bare, and even takes the floor!
- Downplayed:
- Bob takes a bar of soap from a hotel.
- Bob takes a Gideon Bible from a hotel.
- Justified:
- Bob is a Jerkass.
- Bob is a kleptomaniac.
- Bob is a hoarder.
- The hotel considered the TV to be junk and offered Bob to take the TV, as doing so is saving them the cost of properly disposing of it.
- Inverted:
- The hotel has a website from which people can buy the types of furniture and décor found in their rooms. Bob buys a plasma TV from the website.
- The maid takes money from Bob's wallet or the little travel safe in his room when she comes in to clean, instead of or in addition to whatever tip(s) he may (or may not) have left her.
- Bob gets rid of his unwanted clothing and housewares by leaving them behind in his hotel room after checking out.
- Subverted:
- Alice's suspects Bob's new TV is stolen, but he was able to find a cheap one used.
- Bob does take a lot of stuff that was provided in his hotel room, but they were things like shampoo bottles and soap bars which were meant for him specifically anyway.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob was able to forge evidence that the TV was purchased rather then stolen.
- The bathrobe, though, not so much.
- Parodied:
- Bob becomes The Thing That Would Not Leave.
- Bob stays at a bed-and-breakfast, and takes knickknacks from the living room when he leaves.
- Alice worries about Bob going to jail because he took the little soaps and shampoos.
- Bob steals the entire hotel.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Bob takes things from one hotel room and leaves them in another hotel room.
- Bob has the identical TV model in the trunk of his car but it is not working properly. He quietly swaps out his old TV for the one in his hotel room.
- Averted:
- Bob doesn't take the TV, or any other items from the hotel.
- Bob doesn't stay at a hotel. He may not be traveling in-story, or he may be staying with relatives or friends.
- The hotel TV is bolted down and unable to be removed.
- Enforced: "We need to show Bob is a jerk. Let's see him steal something from the hotel room set."
- Lampshaded: "Sir, that TV is not meant to be taken home."
- Invoked: Bob stays in a nice hotel that he wouldn't normally be able to afford (because his boss is paying for it), and he spots a 50" plasma smart TV that he would never be able to afford himself.
- Implied:
- Bob is shown packing up after a trip and the towel racks in the hotel bathroom are bare.
- The towels in Bob's house have the name of the hotel embroidered on them.
- Exploited:
- Bob holds the items "hostage" in order to get what he wants from the hotel staff, or from his boss, or someone else.
- Charlie blackmails Bob with evidence of the theft. If Bob pays up, Charlie will claim that the TV was his, and he sold it to Bob.
- Defied: Bob decides that taking the TV would be wrong, or at least that it would be more trouble than it's worth and could get him arrested (not to mention, fired), so he doesn't take the TV with him when he leaves.
- Discussed:Bob: I want that TV.Alice: We couldn't afford that on our combined salaries for two years.Bob: [Wink] We could take this literal TV that we are watching right now ... Mike's place isn't that far from here ...
- Conversed: "Hey Bob, where did you get that TV? Did you take it from a hotel or something?"
- Deconstructed: Bob is permanently banned from the hotel after he is caught stealing the hotel's towels.
- Reconstructed: Bob goes to another hotel and returns to his old shenanigans, but this time he takes greater care to not get caught.
Take the link back to Stealing from the Hotel ... no, not like that, greedy thief!
