Return of lost items
 

This is not a rant, just an observation...

Been on the road pretty solid since early January and when I unpacked I was missing a picture frame with a picture of me and my wife. Started backtracking Marriotts, RIs and Courtyards and finally found it at a Courtyard. I spoke to the Assistant GM and she said "Yes, we have it and a bottle of prescription medicine you left."

I had to ask, so here goes..."If you had the item along with a prescription bottle with my name and phone number on it (both of which matched the info on the room ressie), did it ever occur to you over the past six weeks to call me and say you had it?" She said, "No."

They sent it back and I'm happy to have it. Customer service is better in some places than in others.

I stayed at the FS Marriott Sable Oaks in Portland, ME a few days before Christmas when there were only a handful of people staying there at the time. Accidently left a ballcap behind in my room. Called the front desk when I realized I left it the following week & they transferred me to their "Lost & Found" voicemail line. Left a response with my info/room number...no response.

I returned to this property in Feb and spoke with the front desk. Explained my situation & even gave my business card with my personal cell # written on the back. Still no response.

I do realize that it is my fault for leaving the item behind, but at least a callback would be nice. Especially since I have followed up with the front desk on this. :confused:

Some prescriptions - although not all - are fairly low value and aren't worth the shipping costs to return. The hotel could spend a lot of time and effort where the guest finds little benefit. (I left some stuff behind around Thanksgiving and was happy when the hotel returned my call and promptly forwarded the items by FedEx - charges appearing on an amended folio.)

Likewise, a property in Prague offered to forward my $10 paperback book via $90 in DHL charges. No, thanks - really.

Don't necessarily disagree, but it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to call or email the person (when they have that information) to find out if the left behind items are needed and worth shipping.

I think it should be standard by marriott that if guest leaves something behind and they have an email on file to send them a quick email about it. This is not that hard of a policy to start.

One time, I left my DL at Blockbuster (forgot my card). Anyway, didnt realize it for a while and got a new license-i didnt remember leaving it there.

A few weeks later, i was in Blockbuster and they said-"We have your DL." WHAT??? You didnt look me up and call me? They simply handed it back.

Agree w/ this 100%. I don't often leave items, but when I do I would have appreciated being contacted especially when I've stayed at multiple places and not known which property I left it at w/o doing the homework the OP mentioned. Sometimes I would have told them to toss or donate; other times they were expensive items that I wanted back & I was willing to foot the shipping bill.

Cheers.

Well, I did a rant here about this a few years ago and concluded Marriott will do nothing until you ask. "For your protection" was the excuse many people offered - as in they want no involvement in any clandestine activity you might be engaging in at their hotels.

I had left a cell charger in a room and when I returned 4 weeks later, I innocently asked about it not knowing exactly where it might had fallen away. Well, security marched right up, it was bagged and well documented on a multi part form detailing exactly where, when and who had found it. A show of ID and signature and it was mine again. A lot of work went into NOT returning a $20 charger if I hadn't asked a question.

People mentioned secret job interviews and affairs for not reaching out to the guest in any type of manner which I think is compete BS and an overreaction by corporate legal types. Sounds like criminals have more rights than the victims.

Maybe you use a bit of discretion when "martial aids" are left behind, but a prescription and Driver's License? Come on. Had you left the hotel with an unsettled final bill or monetary issue, do you believe your "anonymity" would be protected and they wouldn't contact you in some manner to pay up?

I don't think it's an excuse at all. As somebody who ran the front desk of a courtyard for 3 years in New Orleans, it's not my business to know what you are doing in your room and who/what knows about it. You could have left a book behind because you were done with it, or a phone charger because it didn't work anymore. It's my job to give you a clean, working room and attentive service. I've seen it all from "college friends" saying goodbye at 3am in the lobby, to helping guests find a jeweler to get a new wedding band before they have to fly back home. Like most rules, this one is not for the 99% of people, it's at the 1% and I'm sure that Mr. Jones wouldn't want a message on his home answering machine that so and so from the hotel in San Francisco was returning his item, when he was supposed to be in Duluth.

Good points on both sides of the discussion. I, too, worked at the FD of a Courtyard for a little over a year about 8 years ago. We didn't bother to contact anyone about phone chargers or books, but if it was a personal item like a prescrip or a picture frame with a personal picture in it, we called the number on the ressie. If we busted anyone, oh well...should have foregone the points and used a fake address. :D

I think that hotels don't contact guests about left items because they could well belong to a previous guest. If someone rang to ask if you had left a valuable item, some people would probably just say yes and take something that wasn't theirs.

I once left a jacket at Portsmouth (UK) Marriott. I called immediately when I realised I had left it and an on the ball housekeeper found it within 10 minutes and posted it to me at no charge. I had it back in two days. Excellent customer service. If the hotel had identified the next guest as the owner, they could have accepted an expensive item of clothing as their own only to have me call a week later to find that had happened ....

I can't speak for other properties, but at the CY where I worked we logged the item and the date it was found in a log book. That way we could match the name of the person checking out that day to the item.

BTW, I paid the shipping to get my picture frame and prescrip back.

Hence my point. I think most Marriott's (at least from the REN I stayed at when I got my charger back) go way out of their way to clean rooms completely and then store/catalog lost items in great detail. This is not a pay-by-the-hour motels us business travelers are staying at. A simple cell call, email, etc, "did you possibly leave anything behind?" without identify the item is simple common business courtesy no mattter who pays for the return shipping.

Yes, I'm sure hotels and FD clerks have seen it all. But to protect 1% and ignore the other 99% of mundane business travelers who have a "senior moment" due to the stress and bustle of business travel is absurd. If I decide to cheat on my wife and leave a home number or common email address in my profile (or use a common credit card), perhaps I'm the stupid one?

Again, I blame litigation fearful corporate policy!

If it's important enough, the guest will contact the hotel. It's great when the hotel has taken care of the item. The hotel should NEVER contact the guest, rather, the hotel should err on the side of caution.

Perhaps the guest was having an illicit encounter. Perhaps the guest was on a job interview and the email account is the guest's work email. Perhaps the item was left on purpose, but why should the hotel have to take the time and effort to track the guest down.

I left something very recently at a hotel. It took me two weeks to remember which hotel. The hotel had the item. I sent the hotel a prepaid FedEx label (via email) for the item to be returned. I don't feel slighted that the hotel did not contact me, nor do I expect the hotel to foot the cost of my scatter-brain mistake. I am grateful the hotel kept the item.

When I was in school, I waited tables. Mr. and Mrs. X were regulars, coming in about once a week with their daughter, who was around eighteen. One day, Mr. X left his credit card. He had put his phone number on the receipt, so I called and left him a message that it was at the host stand and either he or Mrs. X could stop by and pick it up. Mrs. X came in to pick it up. Only Mrs. X was NOT the woman we were used to seeing with Mr. X and had assumed was Mrs. X. The woman we assumed was Mrs. X was the mother of Mr. X's daughter, who the real Mrs. X was told had been out of the picture for years. I felt horrible. Mr. X felt it important to be part of his daughter's life. (The daughter was a developmentally disabled adult) and had managed to do this without Mrs. X knowing, as she did not want him involved with the ex-mistress, we later found out. Mrs. X told me in no uncertain terms that she was the real Mrs. X and the other woman was "some tramp" in her words. Mr. X never came back to the restaurant. I felt horrible. Still do to this day.

There are bound to be differing opinions on this subject. I got my stuff back and I'm good. I would have been good if they had contacted me first. I'm good with the fact that I had to track it down.