Well to answer some of the questions asked:

My wife realized that she had left the handbag in the middle of the afternoon. By then we did not call the hotel because we were on our way back home and could stop at the hotel a couple of hours later. We didn't go back to the hotel immediately because we were 200Km away.

I am a PC platinum ambassador member and the hotel has my contact details. Furthermore my mobile phone number and home address was on the reservation, I confirmed this at check in.

If they only found the bag "a few hours" after I left (6pm on Friday), then the right thing to do would have been to call me, Friday evening or Saturday morning at the latest. I went to the police to report it on Sunday afternoon, by then they had plenty of time to have contacted me. And even when the police officer first called the manager, the manager said they had not found it and it was not on the list of items found, it was only after insisting and waiting for a few minutes on the line that the manager acknowledged they in fact had the bag.

I did not see the point of calling the hotel again after leaving on that Friday afternoon because they categorically denied to having found the handbag. In any case they knew that the bag was missing and they had my contact details.

On that Friday afternoon I asked the reception clerk to take me to the room where we had stayed. The room had been cleaned and the handbag was not there. The clerk checked the found items list and the handbag was not mentioned there. I insisted and he took me to see the cleaning lady and her manager at the utility room, he specifically said that she was the one who had cleaned the room, and she denied to my face to have found the handbag. Furthermore the handbag was not in the utilities room, and that is where they kept the cleaning carts.

I never said that I had “proof of attempted theft”, I said that I had a strong impression that the handbag was nearly stolen by the cleaning staff. This is a forum and I think that we are still allowed to express our opinions.

In any case it is strange, t say the very least, that the hotel staff finds a handbag only a few hours after the owner comes looking for it and doesn’t try to contact him.

It was a small leather bag, rather expensive, inside there was a wallet with about 40€, credits cards, IDs and other documents, keys, make up accessories, etc. I think that just the cash and value of the leather bag itself can be quite appealing. The thing is that we were 100% sure that it had been left in the hotel room. If we were not sure, when faced with the hotel denial, we would have probably thought that we lost it elsewhere and given up, and perhaps we would have never recovered it . Again I am not saying that I have “proof of attempted theft”, but I am saying that from my perspective that is what it looks like.