Ronald W.
Yelp
While preparing for a night out in Florence, I needed an iron to smooth out my trousers from two days in a suitcase. As none was in our room, we called the front desk at Hotel Degli Orafi to request one. Instead of the typical, "we'll send it right up," we were told they couldn't provide one for "security reasons."
Bewildered at how lending a guest an iron could present a security issue, and knowing that even most mid-level hotels routinely provide irons in guest rooms, I decided I needed to speak face to face with front desk personnel to understand what this meant. Because as best I could surmise, the only "security" issues that could possibly arise from use of an iron are 1) that I might use it to bash or burn my girlfriend (she's far too lovely for that), or 2) I might steal it. Neither of which I had any plan to do, nor gave hotel staff any reason to suspect.
When I presented these two scenarios to the front desk attendant, and asked what other security issue might be of concern, she said a guest might burn themself. Seriously?!? In other words, the security risk they sought to minimize was not that toward third parties I might attack with their iron, nor to the hotel itself, were I to steal it, but rather it was the risk to myself they were concerned about. Of all the lame excuses she could have contrived, that one deserved a double take!
In 40 years of travels, having stayed in dozens of hotels on five continents, never have I heard an innkeeper express concern for a guest burning themself with an iron! While her explanation was the lowest point of my Hotel Degli Orafi experience, it wasn't the only low point. See photos.