Haven’t yet, but good idea. We’ve certainly spent some bucks there over the years, but I was very impressed. 
I left a sleep mask in a chain motel in San Antonio. I contacted them and they mailed it to me and paid the postage.
Huh. I remember leaving something behind and going back for it. I think it was Niagara Falls, one time I visited in March and it was really frickin’ cold… but for the life of me I can’t remember what.
Figured out before I’d walked all the way from the hotel to the bus depot, which was something of a hike. And fortunately I had the time to go back before the last bus home.
I forgot I was checked into a hotel and left my luggage there.
I was on vacation in northern Wisconsin and hanging out with an old friend of mine who is a pilot. We left on his private plane from the Rhinelander airport and flew to a few places. St. paul, New Orleans, and then Little Rock. A week later we were in Searcy, Arkansas staying with a mutual friend. I had a small bag with me but was wondering where some of my other stuff was when it dawned on me: Oh, Shit! :smack: I was supposed to check out of that hotel room 5 days ago! Duh!
Called them up. They said they checked me out of the room on the day I had paid up till and put my luggage in storage.
Current hotel clerk here - something I’ve been doing for twenty years or so.
First off, y’all are right - we rarely attempt to contact a guest who has left something. The exception is obviously valuable and/or sentimental items; then we’ll twist ourselves into curls to get in touch with you.
(For god’s sake, people, give us your cell phone numbers, not your home number!)
The general procedure is that the housekeepers bring down what they’ve found once they’ve finished the rooms. They put them into plastic bags with the date and which room they were in. If they find one of the aforementioned important things, they’ll usually call down as soon as they find them; we go up and retrieve them and start trying to contact the owner.
Lost items get logged into the computer, then the regular things are put into the Big Cardboard Box. If we’re contacted, we check in the computer, then dig through the Box. We’ll send it back to you COD, or whatever alternate method you want. This is marked in the computer as returned - time, date, and by who.
Every once in a while, one of us digs through the Box, and disposes of the stuff that’s more than 6 months old*. The stuff is marked in the computer with the method of disposal. We keep phone chargers; as mentioned, they’re handy to lend out. The rest goes to the Salvation Army or gets pitched. Since it’s mainly clothing, most goes to the Salvos.
Another note - those of you who are saying things like “of course they said they couldn’t find it” are, 99.9% of the time, simply wrong in the assumption that the maids or the desk stole it. I’ve been in this business a long time, and I’ve never heard of a housekeeper being busted, and the ones that I’ve worked more directly with (like at my current job)…well, the notion is simply laughable. You lost it, probably somewhere else, or it dropped down the sink and you didn’t notice, or something like that. Not saying theft never happens, but it’s vanishingly rare.
*I think. Might be longer, but one of the other clerks usually takes care of that.
I left my laptop in a motel on the Oregon coast. I called them and they mailed it to me. Oregon is good that way.