"Have you ever lied on holiday to have discounts? " The simple and direct question was asked about 2000 European travellers who took part in a research with which Hotels.com has bare vices and misfortunes of tourists from the old continent, including surprising revelations.
To begin with, the survey shows that European tourists are quite reluctant to lie, especially Danes and Germans. Respectively about 86% and 75% of respondents in these countries said they would never be able to lie to get benefits and free services.
But in Europe not everyone thinks so, and we Italians are the most shameless!
In the face of a percentage (32%) of Italians who could lie but would feel guilty for doing so, about 26% of respondents don’t struggle to admit that it would mislead the hotel staff to have advantages, because the holidays became too expensive!
The Spanish instead, in addition to admitting to lie more than all, are the tourists who feel more uncomfortable for doing it (41% of the respondents).
But what techniques do they adopt most frequently? The most used in general is complaining for a bad service and therefore ask for a discount "reparator"; method used especially by Norwegians. The Spanish instead prefer to jump on the minibar, consume the drinks and fill the bottles of water because the staff does not notice.
In general all European tourists, especially Italians and French, prefer to take advantage of the check-outs. If the staff of the hotel by mistake does not count some service to the account of Italian or French guests, they may pretend not to notice it! 74% of the French and 68% of the Italians interviewed admitted that they would.
As for hotel courtesy products, we are among the least interested European tourists to take them home, while the Norwegians (33% of the respondents) cannot resist the temptation to pack them all, arriving at home even robe and towels, like Swedes and Irish.
Another technique to tear free services to hotels is to pretend to be on honeymoon. Many facilities in fact reserve to the newlyweds a special treatment and advantageous discounts. The only European tourists who have a clean conscience are Danish and Swedish. Everyone else admits they lied at least sometimes. Among the most prone tourists to pretend husband and wife we find in the head the Spaniards and Norwegians!
The advantages? Especially the upgrade in a superior room, but many, and this is especially true for the French, do so to get homage to a bottle of champagne or a welcome with chocolates and fruit in the room.
The Italians, on the contrary, have almost never adopted this technique for having discounts. Albergatori, if a couple of Italians come to your wedding hotel, you can believe it.
But having special discounts and gifts is not the only reason for Europeans to lie at reception. Hotels.com reveals that some tourists, mainly Swedish, Norwegian and English, sometimes book rooms with a different name than their own. The reason? Especially for joke or to try to emulate the vip, but also to hide a stay in the company of someone with whom you should not be. English and Swedish are the most fedifragues.
Among the "fasulli" surnames used most frequently in Europe we find mainly names of famous characters or comic heroes, from Bond to Fiorucci, from Mourinho to Beckham to Zorro. There are also those who nicely book by name and surname of a friend or by the nickname of their partner, not to mention who uses the name of the first thing that comes to mind.
