Living Well For Nothing

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 929, 24 March 1930, Page 12

Living Well For Nothing

Men and Women Who Dupe Hotels London hotels are being duped daily by well-dressed mep and women who j live expensively for a few days, or : even a few weeks, and then leave with- j out paying their bills. Hotel managers are being warned of the exceptionally intensive activities, of these bilking guests. “The slack season in hotels, such as we are having now. is the time when these unprofitable visitors are; busiest.” said an hotel manager when i- erviewed. “I have just been duped by a woman j who is the cleverest of them all. She ! arrived at the hotel with an enormous j cabin trunk and a suit-case, and in j her hand she carried a dainty blue attache case. “We gave her the best rooms in the I hotel, and during the next few days. she did some shopping. She bought a number of expensive dresses and j \ some jewellery, and, as usual, we paid ! ] the bill when her purchases were de-1 j liverecl. 1 “For a fortnight the woman went! ! out twice a day with her dainty j | attache case without arousing any sits-: j picion. One day she did not return, i ! and we went to her rooms and found ) | bot'i the cabin trunk and suit-case were I empty. She had removed her pur-j chases bit by bit in her attache case, j She owed us more than £ 100.” The manager of one famous hotel sent a letter to fellow managers of j j hotels warning them of "The Man j from Peru.” I “This man," said the manager, j ! “announced himself as having just j | arrived from Peru, where lie claimed j ! to have discovered a rich oil-field. He ; ! said our hotel was the most comI fortable he had ever stayed at —but a j I few days later he disappeared owing j us £30.” ! A woman of fastidious taste, but | with no money, was mentioned by | the manager of another hotel where | she had enjoyed a brief spell of luxj ury and then departed without paying. “She was well dressed,” said the manager, “and talked a great deal about'the kind of rooms she required and the food she liked. She mentioned, too, that she was fond of flowers, and these were placed in her rooms every day. “I noticed that her luggage was limited to a small suit-case, and I tactfully alluded to this, but she replied, ‘I sail not stay here more than a night if I ant not comfortable, ancl if I am X shall send my maid for the . rest of my luggage,” “She gave an address in Mayfair that seemed reassuring, until we made inquiries there a few days later and found our guest was formerly employed there as a parlormaid. X went to iler rooms to present the bill, but ; she had gone.”