If you’ve ever forgotten a valuable item in your hotel room at the end of your travels, don’t feel too bad. A recent report revealed that many relaxing vacations come to a not-so-relaxing end due to hotel guests having the unfortunate habit of leaving possessions behind.
More than ⅓ of hotels claim that at least a quarter of hotel stays end with guests forgetting personal items in their rooms, according to Hotels.com’s (EXPE) annual Hotel Room Innsights Report.
“Our memories are tied to particular contexts,” Professor Charan Ranganath of UC Davis, author of “Why We Remember,” said in the report. “A vacation is relaxing because it pulls you out of your routine and stimulates your curiosity. But it can make you a little less likely to follow your good habits, like exercise—or remembering your wallet.”
Hotels have long provided guests with assistance acquiring items that were left at home, like soap and toothpaste. But the report revealed that many hotels have also expended enormous amounts of effort returning the items that guests leave behind.
For example, an employee at Hotel Victoria Ejecutivo, in Guadalajara, drove 13 miles via motorcycle to return a guest’s forgotten passport. At another hotel, staff members replaced a child’s missing teddy bear and gifted the young guest with a book detailing the toy’s adventures while the pair was separated.
“If you forget something, we get it back to you exactly how you ask us to,” said Emilie Russell, General Manager of central London’s Chateau Denmark, in the report. “When unexpected things happen, it’s about what you do as innkeepers that sets you apart.”
While some of the items left behind are quotidian – with 10% of hotels saying that guests have left behind their dentures – others are far more unusual, exotic, or pricey. At least one hotel reported a guest leaving behind a $6.1 million watch and two venues said that guests had forgotten pets in their rooms (both animals were safely returned.)
Continue reading to see the most unusual items left behind in hotel rooms, according to Hotels.com’s Hotel Room Innsights Report.
