I left a favorite t-shirt in my hotel room on my last trip. No big deal-it’s easily replaceable and not worth calling about. This isn’t the first time I’ve forgotten something, and despite my policy of making one last room check, I know it won’t be the last.
I’ve had great luck in the past, with some places going above and beyond to get stuff back to me. I left a load of laundry in a dryer in a hotel in Albuquerque and they were happy to mail the clothes back to me (I sent flowers to the cleaning staff to say thanks). Possibly the most outstanding example was The Brighton Metropole shipping back a windbreaker from the UK to California…free of charge!
One thing that seems consistent is that hotels are not pro-active when it comes to items left behind. That’s understandable I guess–it would be too much work and expense to track down everyone who leaves something in their room.
Many years ago, I was traveling for business and left a travel alarm clock in a hotel room. Not a particularly valuable item, but those things were extremely handy before cell phones and when every room didn’t have a digital alarm clock as a matter of course. As it happened, I was back in the same city a couple of weeks later and stopped by the hotel to ask about it. The desk clerk pulled out an enormous cardboard box full of clocks and said “is it one of these?” It was.
More recently (about two years ago, I think), I left my car keys and an iPod at the Hyatt in downdown Chicago. I called, they had retrieved my stuff, and they promptly shipped it right to my house. I had to pay the UPS charges, which I was happy to do.
I think you’re right; I doubt the hotels would have ever contacted me if I hadn’t inquired. Certainly not in the first case.
I almost never leave stuff behind, because I have a nearly foolproof system for leaving. I have heard some great stories though.
One year I bought a new pair of sandals. I wore them for about a block and a half before my feet were killing me. We’re talking serious pain. We found another place to buy some, and they were much better. Since I only spent $10 on the first pair I didn’t bother returning them.
When we checked out of the hotel, I just left them behind. I may have even put them in the trash.
When we returned the next year, they were waiting for me in our room. The owner made a point of telling me that she held onto them for the entire year.
For awhile, my wife and I were always leaving stuff (packing in a hurry I guess) Most of it has been returned by very nice hotel staff. I left my verizon wifi at a hotel in Phoenix last year, however, and although I called within an hour, they swore they couldn’t find it in the room.
I’ve never left anything important - maybe a bottle of shampoo or a paperback book, nothing worth mailing back. As a hotel clerk/manager, though, I’ve returned craploads of things, from hearing aids and false teeth to iPods to much-loved stuffed animals. I was pro-active on things that seemed important, trying to telephone folks as soon as we found jewelry or cell phones or wallets/briefcases, but not so much for the mundane items like pillows or phone chargers. (P.S. Every hotel and motel on the planet has a box of 87-gazillion phone chargers.)
I left my teddy bear in a Disney hotel once. I was 16 (yep, I was) and I’d had the bear since I was 4. I still have it and sleep with it today.
Anyway I believe I remembered as we were pulling away from the hotel and I had to run back up to the room and interrupt the cleaning people to retrieve it. I was relieved it was there but being Disney, I wasn’t surprised.
Since the bear is pretty much my “what to save from your burning house?” item I’ve never come even close to losing him since then.
My wife and I left a hotel and days and miles later she realized she was missing an earring. Not a pair, just one. She called the hotel, they found it and mailing it back to her.
My kid left his rabbit in hotel in Punta Cana and we only realized once back to Toronto. Few phone calls later to the hotel (they found his rabbit wrapped in sheets) and DHL (had to pay for package shipping) it was back home. And, needless to say, little rabit is still around.
En route from moving from Palmer, AK to Belfast, ME (driving through Canada the whole way), I left behind
the VERY FIRST NIGHT OUT !!! :eek: :smack:
I called the hotel in Palmer ASAP I discovered the loss. It had been found and saved; my niece-in-law retrieved it and mailed it to our new address about three months later.
Waaay back in the early 70’s when I was but a young’un, my family took a trip to Hawaii. It was one of those package deals, one island this day & another the next. Our suitcases had to be packed & out in the hallway by some ridiculous hour in the morning before our next transfer, so we always did it at night. My parents had obtained their first ever credit card for this trip, but mostly paid the way with traveler’s checks and cash. I think I was about 10 years old, making my brother about 14. Mom was responsible for getting us up & ready to go each morning.
I don’t even remember which island it was, but Mom’s little zip pouch containing ALL of our traveler’s checks got left behind. By then we’d flown off to another island and would be traveling for another week before finally settling at a cousin’s place on Oahu for a few days. It turns out the hotel maid found the pouch shortly after our departure but was unable to catch us. With no reliable address for over a week, we provided my cousin’s address outside of Honolulu, thinking that we’d at least get the pouch back. I recall many tears. Anyway, we learned how useful credit cards could be. You could even charge a Big Mac at McDonalds in Hawaii!
When we arrived in Honolulu we had a package waiting for us. Not just the pouch, but ALL of the traveler’s checks, and even some cash that Mom didn’t even knew she’d stashed in there. We exchanged Christmas cards with the hotel maid for many years after that, and it restored our faith in humanity.
I left a 15-count MAC eyeshadow palette one time, and after calling for 3 days everybody maintained that nobody had seen it. :rolleyes: Some maid got pretty lucky that day.
When my daughter was young we left her ‘blankie’ in a hotel room. She wasn’t super traumatized, but she was upset. We called during the trip home; they found it and mailed it to us.
I lost my stuffed raccoon at a hotel in Niagara Falls when I was 7 or 8, and I never got him back. I was really upset, but I had been smart enough, even at that age, to bring my second-favorite stuffed animal on vacation. Cheer Bear was happily waiting for me back at home and I got over the loss of poor Rocky after a week or so.
My husband left his favorite sweatshirt in the bed-and-breakfast we stayed at in California and didn’t realize it until we were already home in Maryland. He called, and they still had it - we paid the shipping to have it sent to us.
I was in Las Vegas a few years ago, before my Grand Canyon hike. I realized a couple days later that I’d left a shirt and a windbreaker behind in my room. I called the hotel. It was late in the evening so I got transferred to the security desk. The guy there told me that they’d found the items and I think he even gave me a claim number. To get them back, I’d have to talk to a particular person, and he gave me her direct phone number. I bought a new windbreaker for the hike; still have it, even though it’s a bit too big.
I called her about once a week for the next six weeks. There was never an answer, so I left voice messages with my phone number and asked her to call me back. No calls. Tired of being ignored, I called the main number again, explained what happened, and asked to speak to anyone else who could help take care of things. I held for a bit, and finally the woman I’d been trying to call answered. She said she hadn’t gotten any of my messages, and didn’t know if they even had the stuff I’d left. I told her about the first guy I talked to. She said that he shouldn’t have told me that they found my items, and they only keep things for thirty days, so I was out of luck.
Possibly the worst customer service I’ve ever gotten. Kind of a shame, it was a nice hotel apart from that. For a city that’s known for catering to guests, I’ve had really shitty luck there.
