Miami Hotel Goes Hi-Tech To Track Towels, Bathrobes

MIAMI (CBS4) -- Hotel guests loved to be pampered with big, thick, soft towels, and fluffy bathrobes. Some guests may even take a few towels home or stow away a bathrobe in their luggage before checking out. In order to stop this type of theft, a Miami hotel, along with two others in New York and Honolulu have turned high-tech in order to stop hotel guests from stealing their stuff.

Linen Technology Tracking, a Miami-based company, recently patented a radio-frequency identification chip (RFID) designed to keep real-time inventory of frequently misplaced or stolen goods.

The washable RFID tags are sewn into towels, bathrobes and bed sheets. Linen Technology Tracking says the chip will not only help cut down in the theft bathrobes, sheets and towels, but will also help hotels monitor their linens in real time, so they know when they need to order more.

The three hotels currently using the chips in Miami, Honolulu and Manhattan, asked to remain anonymous. But the product is apparently working. The Honolulu property says its reduced theft of its pool towels from 4,000 a month to just 750 since installing the chip last summer. That's a savings of more than $16,000 a month.

There's no word on when more hotels might start using the chip.