The naked truth about hotel monkey business

Fake chest hair, a monkey suit, buckets of sand and a Darth Vader mask are among items left behind by hotel guests in New Zealand and Australia, a survey reveals.

Other property left in Novotel Hotel rooms has included handcuffs, whips, a wooden leg, leather gear and teddy bears.

The survey of the company's 24 properties showed women were noisier hotel guests and more likely to leave their rooms in a mess than men, and it revealed stories of guests caught naked as well as in monkey suits outside their rooms.

Some were also caught in compromising positions in lifts, stairwells, swimming pools and fire-hose cupboards.

Women were more demanding guests than men, and 75 per cent of hotels surveyed said women were more likely to ask for a room upgrade.

Staying in a hotel seems to make men more romantic - they were more likely than women to order chocolates and flowers.

But they were also more forgetful: 93 per cent of hotels said men were more likely than women to lose their room key, 67 per cent said men were more likely to flood the bathroom, and 87 per cent said men were more likely to get locked out of their room when naked.

Women brought almost twice as much luggage - 2.6 pieces compared with 1.4.

The survey said men were more likely to be generous tippers, and women were more likely to "souvenir" items from their room.

- NZPA