Need some advice please...Wifes luggage was stolen from NY Holiday Inn.

Hello everyone,

I'm not a regular poster on this forum, but that last time I sought advice from this group (it was a few years ago about a fear of flying ), I recieved some great suggestions.

Long story short..my wife went to New York for the weekend for a girls shopping trip. They had pre-booked a hotel a major hotel chain. When they got there, the hotel had not reserved the correct room for them, so they asked all the girls to store their luggage in a "holding room" (tagged the luggage and gave a claim ticket to my wife). The girls went out shopping for the day and when they came back to the hotel, everyones bags were there except for my wifes suitcase.

So, either her luggage was stolen, or it was given to another guest by accident.

Inside the luggage was around $2,000 worth of clothes/accessories and her Canadian Passport (not the best place to store it when out of the country...but it's a learning experience I suppose).

She flies back on Wednesday and is going to the Canadian Embassy today to get a temporary travel pass.

My question is...should the hotel be held responsible for losing the luggage? We can always make a claim via our house insurance policy.....but I feel that the hotel should be held to some sort of standard considering it was their mistake in the first place that required my wife to leave her bags in the storage room versus a locked hotel room.

My wife said when they returned to hotel to get the bags,they were allowed to just walk right into the room to get the luggage and nobody checked to see if their claim ticket matched the tag on the other luggage.....so the security there is sloppy at best.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Pacman

First, what hotel? You may get a more informed answer if this is in the hotel chain forum where the incident occured.

Second, what did the hotel staff do or say when they could not give you your luggage since you had a claim ticket?

Thanks for the reply.

The hotel is the Holiday Inn. I couldn't find the right "hotel forum" to post the thread....only a luxury hotel forum. The manager at the hotel was not in yesterday, and is coming in today to talk to my wife about it. The staff said they will try their best to find it, but that my wife would have to wait for the manager to arrive so her could talk to her about anything specific.

I think I'd also call the police and get a crime report filed - you may need it for the insurance claim.

IMHO, the hotel accepted the case, so they accepted responsibility for it. Loss is therefore their responsibility, but your home insurance might be better at holding them accountable than you will be.

Unless the hotel manager meets with your wife and cuts her a check for $3,000 on the spot, please call the police and get a police report ASAP.

My wife is on her way to the police station to file a report.

Mr_Pacman, the claim check the hotel gave your wife probably has some legal language on it describing the hotel's liability.

In general, state laws limit hotel liability (Innkeepers Laws), even when the items are in the control of the hotel, unless they are locked in the hotel's safe. Whether that's good or bad, it's the law.

I tried to google New York state innkeepers laws, but didn't get very far. That's where your info will be.

You would be wanting the Priority Club/Intercontinental Hotels Forum.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=426

Best wishes for a satisfactory resolution.

The hotel has insurance for this very reason. It's true that they may have language excluding checked baggage from liability, but at the very least they would make some sort of good faith gesture. I would be the polite and extremely squeaky wheel (until polite doesn't work).

I was in the exact same situation although staying at a different major chain. Inkeepers law would dictate the legal limits that the hotel was responsible for reimbursing.

In my case, they admitted to negligently giving my suitcase to another guest and offered to reimburse me for the lost items. I shopped for replacement items for about a month and mailed receipts to the hotel totaling about $1,500. I had a check two weeks later. Make sure the General Manager of the hotel is involved so you have a high level point of contact for reimbursement.

Wow, that is a bummer. We frequently check our bags either with the bell captain or at tradeshows and have never given them a second thought.

It is sad to learn that stuff like this happens.

Did she ever get the bag back?

Let me move this thread to our IC Hotel forum. Hopefully further suggestions await from the regular posters in that forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz

Stuff like this happens and that is one of the reasons why anybody who travels should have Travel insurance.