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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be pissed off hotel has stolen husband's jacket

115 replies

tigwig76 · 30/12/2018 23:34

Just got back from a Christmas holiday from Lanzarote. There was 10 of us in total and because of the sleeping arrangements in rooms myself and my husband had separate rooms next door to each other with a child each. He had brought his Superdry hooded jacket which was borrowed by our teenage daughter on the plane journey. She put it on the back of the chair in his room and it ended up being partially covered up by cushions from the bed which he put on the table next to the chair.
Completely forgot it was there. I saw it myself yesterday as I was clearing bits off the table to pack and could kick myself for not bloody moving it somewhere more prominent. Checked out and it wasn't until we boarded plane home he said I've left the jacket.
I immediately emailed hotel when landed as cleaners were waiting on corridor for us to leave the rooms and I was certain it would have been handed in. Hotel replied earlier and said sorry but no item was left!
So do I just suck it up? Just annoyed as it was expensive and also annoyed that we didn't notice and that hotel staff are capable of stealing.

OP posts:

CandyCreeper · 31/12/2018 00:15

Well what else can you do?

LucyAutumn · 31/12/2018 00:42

Can't you ask them to go and look where it was hidden? Maybe the cleaners did a really basic job and it's still there?

Silkei · 31/12/2018 00:53

Nothing you can do. If it had been handed in the hotel would have said so. Imo the cleaner has pocketed it.

Sparklesocks · 31/12/2018 01:07

Ahh so annoying, but not really sure what options you have left?

DeepanKrispanEven · 31/12/2018 01:18

You could try claiming on travel insurance, but I wouldn't be too optimistic about that.

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 31/12/2018 01:23

Nothing you can do, sadly.
I've had this happen with a phone charger - nothing like as expensive, but same - got told it wasn't found. Of course it was - they just pocketed it.

Purpleartichoke · 31/12/2018 01:25

I've left items in hotel rooms before. Only once has an item been recovered. I would not phrase an item that you left behind and it wasn't located, "stolen". The cleaning staff are working incredibly hard at high speed. Its just as likely the jacket ended up wadded up in the sheets and sent through the machine with industrial amounts of bleach or thrown into a trash bin without the staff even noticing.

Yulebealrite · 31/12/2018 01:30

I had two items posted to me from Belgium. I contacted them with not much hope as I didn't even realise they were missing for a week or so, but then immediately remembered I'd left them hanging behind a bathroom door. I was delighted as one was a favourite dress.

HeebieJeebies456 · 31/12/2018 01:35

if a grown man can't look after his belongings then he doesn't deserve them....perhaps if HE had been clearing and packing then the outcome might have been different?

PaperHalo · 31/12/2018 01:39

Probably CBA to post it back from Lanzarote TBF...

tillytrotter1 · 31/12/2018 01:40

On the plus side, Superdry have a very good Sale on at the moment!

StoppinBy · 31/12/2018 01:59

@heebiejeebie, bit rude don't you think? Given that the OP and her husband were both sharing a room with a child each I am assuming that they have at least one young child.... My hubby and I are the same, when away one of us packs while the other watches the kids and keeps them out of the way, my first thought was that was what happened here.

Even if it wasn't, have you never left anything behind somewhere?

BananasAreTheSourceOfEvil · 31/12/2018 02:04

Nothing you can do apart from ask them to double check.

I had a suite at a very expensive hotel for a wedding a few years back. Left a bottle of opium (perfume!) in the bathroom in the morning, in the evening after rooms were cleaned it was gone. Hotel swore it was never there. Nothing I could flaming do.

Celticrose · 31/12/2018 02:18

Have also left phone chargers at a posh hotel. One was for my only 2 months old Samsung galaxy and one for my iPad. I realised once we got home (we were only an 11/2 hours away. First got told nothing was left but then they did post me the iPad charger they did not charge me postage even though they said they would. The guy who was cleaning the room banged on our door at 8am looking to clean it!!!!!! We were not yet up and were just thinking of getting up and going down to breakfast. Checkout was at 12noon so what was that about. I think he was a bit pissed off that DH told him to basically go away (politely of course) and wonder was he responsible for my phone charger going missing. Also regret not completing the hotel survey email about our stay

PyongyangKipperbang · 31/12/2018 02:23

How much do you think the cleaners get paid? NMW in Spain is 736 Euro a month which is about £650.

Not saying that it makes stealing ok, but it makes it more understandable.

Beeziekn33ze · 31/12/2018 02:23

First I should compliment the Leeds hotel who posted me a ring I'd left in a loo and the college which posted on the contents of a drawer I'd left full of (new) tights and underwear. Much appreciated.

However I still feel bitter towards a naice seaside family hotel in Devon. I phoned to tell them exactly where in the grounds I'd stupidly left my camera. They found it and (allegedly) sent a member of staff to the post office with it. It never arrived and she (allegedly) had left and gone back to her own country and had not had proof of posting anyway.
It wasn't so much the camera but the photographs in it.

WiddlinDiddlin · 31/12/2018 02:31

I rang a hotel within 20 minutes of leaving when I realised I'd left my almost new kindle between the matress and the headboard.

No sign. I called again when I got home, yes the room had been cleaned, no nothing had been left.

Liars.

I had the Kindle blocked so its unusable to whoever swiped it.

It is however pretty much what I expect if I leave my belongings lying around - it shouldn't be that way, but it is.

SofiaAmes · 31/12/2018 02:40

Call back, ask to speak to the manager and tell them you will leave a review on the various hotel websites (travelocity etc.) and if it doesn't get found, do go ahead and leave the review.

Original poster

tigwig76 · 31/12/2018 09:12

My husband did do his own packing lol but the jacket was on the chair under the cushions from the sofa bed so he didn't see it nor did I on departure day despite looking back in the room several.times!
No way can it have been accidently washed with sheets.
The cleaner was hovering outside the room waiting at bang on check out time. As soon as we walked away she went in the room I turned around and saw her.
We had valuables left in room all week which weren't touched yet leave something and it's gone! Surely she would be worried she'd be found out? The hotel must know which person cleans individual rooms.
Anyhow I've emailed back and said I'm not impressed and that the jacket was definitely there. I also confirmed before I would pay postage.
Glad that Superdry has a sale on but it's not nice to think that hotel staff steal people's belongings unless it is magically found today.

OP posts:

MrsDannyRicc · 31/12/2018 09:19

If you guys didn't see it, maybe the cleaner didn't either. Maybe the next person in the room will have snaffled it.

Or maybe they decided it was recompense for being late to check out, seeing as you were still in the room with the cleaner outside at 'bang on check out time'

DameSquashalot · 31/12/2018 09:24

@Yulebealrite I had a dress returned from Belgium too! I was so amazed. I hung it in the wardrobe ready for next day. By the morning I had forgotten and grabbed something from the suitcase.

sycamore54321 · 31/12/2018 09:31

Your anger seems to me to be misdirected and disproportionate. Yes, in an ideal world, it would be nice to recover the jacket. But its a huge leap to suggest the only other explanation is that the hotel cleaner is a thief, and it’s really horrible if you if you have made that accusation to hotel management.

You said you had left valuables in the room. If the cleaners were thieves, wouldn’t they have pinched some of those? I didn’t know what a Superdry jacket was so I googled and it looks like more of a winter coat - do you really think a cleaner living in Lanzerote would risk their job over a used mid-priced coat that is unsuitable for the climate, unlikely to be the correct size, close to worthless as secondhand? Or do you think it’s possible that cleaners have seen all sorts of unwanted rubbish left by people in hotel rooms and just dumped whatever they find if it isn’t obviously valuable? A jacket well-hidden might have been left by any previous occupant of the room.

You or your husband made a mistake and forgot the jacket. It’s frustrating and it would be great if it turned up but it didn’t and it hasn’t. That’s life. You’ve learned a slightly pricey lesson and I bet you won’t leave a jacket behind again. But to jump from one of those unfortunate life experiences to accusing someone of stealing with zero evidence and risking their career and their family's income is a horrible thing to do. Do you think that cleaners in tourist hotels in Lanzerote have great job stability and a strong union? Or do you think maybe they are minimum wage (at best) liable to be fired and replaced at the slightest hint of a problem?

By all means, ask the hotel to look again. But accusing someone of stealing is just horrible.

leccybill · 31/12/2018 09:40

Spate of this at a holiday hotel I stayed at in August. As soon as we started posting about the missing items on the hotel and tour operator's social media, the items mysteriously appeared, freshly laundered, at reception...

marmaladecats · 31/12/2018 09:40

We’ve never had anything returned that was left behind in a hotel. Last year we stayed with our 6 week old and 3 yr old at a place for a friend’s birthday. The baby and I ended up in Hosp for a few days and while DH was packing he forgot my son’s two beloved teddies he sleeps with. Both distinctive colours. We think they were under the duvet so it’s possible they were bundled up and sent to the laundry but they should have been spotted. We rang several times over the week that followed, even rang the hotel laundry directly. My husband was kicking himself but it was a difficult time as he was rushing to leave and get to the Hosp. Anyway we never got them back. Mean mean mean.

Val87 · 31/12/2018 09:47

They probably just don’t want to go to the trouble of posting it out to you.

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