troyb

I am interested in hearing what others think about a situation I am currently in. Here are the highlights:

- I recently left an article of clothing at a Park Hyatt in SE Asia (I live in the US). The article of clothing is not particularly important to me, but it wasn't cheap and ideally, I'd like it back.
- I realized I left it at the hotel very shortly after leaving and called right away. The front desk found it in the room I had just checked out of and put it aside. We agreed that I would contact them after my trip and coordinate how they could send it to me.
- I contacted the hotel to arrange the shipping and they quoted me an absurd rate, about twice as much as I was able to identify myself.
- The hotel essentially refuses to use any other shipping service (e.g., UPS, DHL), indicating that "the service they use will guarantee my goods get there so that is what they must use."
- Clearly, the hotel is marking up the shipping. I actually asked whether they would provide me the shipping receipt and they refused.

It strikes me as fairly unsavory that a luxury hotel is basically charging me a fee to send the item I left behind. I am more than happy to pay the going rate for shipping (after all, it is my fault that I left the item behind), but I don't think this is something the hotel should be making a profit on. It leaves a very bad taste in my mouth for what was otherwise a very nice stay.

Am I crazy? Has anyone else been charged a hotel fee to ship back a lost item (in addition to the actual cost of shipping)? In the larger scheme of things, its not a big deal, but it just rubs me the wrong way, so I'm interested to hear what others think.

Thanks for your thoughts.