TRAVEL: Hotel crooks' tactics revealed

The tactics used by criminals to steal property from hotel guests are outlined in a report published by Business Traveller magazine. Guests are being forced to contend with increasingly determined luggage thieves, with the villains often trailing their victims from the moment they arrive at the airport, the report claims.

And if they have not struck early on, the thieves pounce when business executives reach their hotel, using a range of methods, including operating in twos and threes to create a distraction, obtaining wallets by deliberately dirtying guests' jackets and then getting them to remove them for cleaning by pretending to be hotel staff, or dropping coins and taking wallets off guests when they bend down to pick the coins up

In addition, says the magazine, the crooks will often bring in their own briefcase or suitcase and swap it for one belonging to the guest, or steal handbags in hotel restaurants by sitting at a nearby table to the victim.