Most people traveling will be using hotels and most of them will take away everything that they arrived with. Maybe a little more (free shampoos!) but occasionally things do get left behind in the rush of leaving the room.
You can make sure that you don’t leave anything behind by keeping an itinerary with your luggage of everything you have in your suitcase/bag. If you make it a checklist you can make sure you have all your stuff before you leave.
The E.L James novel ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ ranked number one on Travelodge’s annual “Books Left Behind” list, with 7,000 copies recovered from hotel rooms. The sequels ‘Fifty Shades Freed’ and ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ placed at fourth and seventh respectively. It might not surprise you, after that, to hear that most of the commonly left-behind items include adult toys and underwear (at least according to hotel chain Novotel)
We’ll move away from that and here are some of the more unusual things found in hotels around the world that guests have left behind:
Luggage
A bit of a cop-out, you might think, that covers everything! But, not quite. At the Adara Hotel in Whistler, Blackcombe in Canada, a family of four decided that they wanted to head to Vegas instead and promptly checked out, leaving all of their luggage and expensive ski equipment in the room.
When the hotel called them up to return the items, the hotel were told to donate everything to a local charity (which the hotel does when an item isn’t claimed within 90 days)
More money than sense is a phrase that comes to mind!
Christmas Presents
Back in 2001 a family took a trip to Boston, where the parents purchased gifts that they then hid beneath the beds. The family had to make an emergency departure back home after receiving a phone call and forgot the presents in the rush. Being Christmas Eve, the hotel weren’t able to ship the presents in time for Christmas Day so instead an employee volunteered to drive to the family’s home in Washington, D.C. (a drive that took 8 hours) and arrived in time for breakfast.
A Full Rabbi Costume
Hotels are used to getting costumed and eccentric guests, but a hotel in Rhode Island were a little surprised to find a entire rabbi outfit left in one of the rooms. This adds to their tally of other costumes, a badge reading “Don’t Mess with Texas Secret Service” and a car’s license plate.
Strangely, none of the items were ever claimed back.
A Marriage License
A marriage license was left in a hotel room in Ohio after a couple’s honeymoon. Not a great start to the marriage, but the hotel return the document to the newlyweds as soon as they could.
$16,000, Cash.
This goes back to the ‘more sense than money’ phrase again. Apparently a guest left a briefcase containing $16,000 in cash was left in the back of a rental car. Why you’d need that much in cash wasn’t addressed but luckily the doorman of the hotel knew the driver and was able to get the case returned, as well as the money inside it.
That’s just how easy it is to lose something, even if it’s incredibly valuable. Leaving something out of sight, means it’s normally out of mind. Make sure you keep everything in an appropriate place and keep track of all your stuff! It could end up costing you a fair amount to replace.