Last week I stayed for two nights at a hotel in New York City that is part of an international chain. When I returned the second evening, I went to my room to discover that all of my belongings were missing. I went to the front desk and they did not know what had happened to it, so they looked to see if the housekeeping staff had stowed it somewhere. Nothing turned up.

After a few hours of trying to contact the woman who had cleaned my room, they called the police and asked that I do so as well. I did. In the meantime, the front desk called to tell me that they did talk to the woman, and she claimed that she thought I had checked out. I had put on the top shelf in the closet a laptop computer, two phone chargers and a computer power cord, and a large backpack that, in addition to some toiletries and clothing, also hadsome items I rarely would have there: a plastic bag with my passport, a check book, and a month's worth of bills and bank statements. I also had a library book.

The cleaner claimed she took the backpack (but somehow didn't notice the computer and cords underneath and adjacent to the backpack) and put it on her cart in the hallway. She had another room she had to clean, so she did that and never again saw or thought about the backpack.

The police came and took the report.

Over the next few days, as I called all my financial institutions, etc., and closed/protected my accounts, the hotel notified me they had identified who had taken the items and were sending two employees to go retrieve my belongings.

When I returned to NY on Monday, I got the computer, the cords and a virtually empty backpack. The hotel still has not shared with me how they retrieved what they did and what the full story is. They are profusely apologetic and say they intend to make it up to me.

My question is (and I am also consulting with an attorney): what would be fair compensation? The hotels gross negligence in moving my belongs to a public area where they were stolen (if the story is true) or employing someone who stole everything outright has compromised my personal and financial security. The dollar value of what was missing in not considerable, but the time, stress, and risk is.

Has anyone gone through something similar? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.