To be pissed off hotel has stolen husband's jacket

[tigwig76]

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.

i had the opposite waiting for the coach back to the airport in tunisia i took my jacket off in the waiting area, realised when we got back to manchester (cold) what i had done, emailed on the beach as thats who we were with , and bless them one of their reps was returning the next day back to england so she brought my coat back with her and posted it from her home town funnily enough the ray ban sunglasses my stupid OH left in the same place never turned up so swings and roundabouts

I checked into a hotel last year and found someone else’s pyjamas under the pillow in my room...

She had had over 3k from us and still wanted £3.75!! We cleaned the place on arrival as it was manky and when we left!!

I'm with Sycamore too. You've jumped on the easiest way to blame someone else. It's incredibly unlikely that they stole it. It's almost worthless for them. You haven't got it because you left it behind; but you have no idea if it was stolen, who by or whether it's been thrown away, or what has happened to it.

How is it incredibly unlikely it's been stolen? What other possible explanation is there? It was a thin hooded jacket not a thick winter coat. Clearly branded and of good quality. Perfect for windy Lanzarote days!! As soon as the cleaner put the cushions back on the sofa bed it would have been clearly visible on the chair. We are both definitely at fault for leaving it but it should have been handed in. It's a 4 star hotel. I expect more of staff.

@HeebieJeebies456 Typical troll-like response!!!

A troll isn't someone who posts a repsonse that's different to all the others or posts something you think sounds rude you know.

Thinking the DH should have checked better isn't an unreasonable suggestion, I have left stuff behind in hotels and it was my own fault and totally avoidable, they same applies here however frustrating it is when it happens to you

I'm not understanding the concept of if you leave it behind it isn't stolen.

What else has happened if it has mysteriously disappeared from the place you left it?

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?

Not sure how this became about the gender-based division of labour 🙄 Surely ALL the adults in a hotel room do a last-minute check for any belongings before leaving?

OP - re: your point about the valuables not going missing, it’s much less likely to happen while the guest is still there. You are on site to complain instantly, to make a fuss; it’s much easier to refuse to back down and demand the management speak to the cleaners, or even call the police. If a guest leaves an item behind, there’s the chance they may not even bother to check if it’s been found, or they check once and don’t bother again if the hotel says nothing’s been handed in. They may decide the cost of the postage is too much to justify getting the item sent back to them. It would be very easy to argue that if a guest thought they had left an item in the room, they could just as easily have left it on the coach to the airport, in the departure lounge, on the plane etc.

All you can do is try again in a couple of days and hope you get a different member of staff. I’ve had this before at the gym when one person on the desk swore blind my bag hadn’t been handed in. His colleague overheard and, not only did she know it had been handed in, it was literally behind the desk in his eyeline. Make sure you didn’t just get someone too lazy to check.

I'm not understanding the concept of if you leave it behind it isn't stolen.

What else has happened if it has mysteriously disappeared from the place you left it?

1. You might not have left it there. Moving things on autopilot is very common, and you may have left it elsewhere. If you have lost it you can't be sure.

1. Depending on what you have left it may have been mistaken for rubbish.

1. It may have been bunched up with sheets/towels and sent to an outsourced laundry.

1. In some chains cleaners only have 15 minutes to fully clean a room so sometimes items in drawers or shoved far under beds/chairs are missed because there simply isn't time to thoroughly check.

1. It may have been entered into the lost property log incorrectly.

1. Depending on how long it has been since the room has been cleaned it might still be on the trolley and not logged at all yet.

Theft is not the only option at all.

Most mid sized hotels will have at least a few items of lost property every day. I have never worked in a hotel that did not record lost property. If a cleaner has not recorded something that has been reported lost more than once, it will be noticed and likely dealt with quickly.

My DD left her tablet behind in a hotel room, I spent a couple of days fruitlessly searching the car/house before thinking to ring the hotel - they had it and kept it in their safe. I was very grateful!

Op. i bet the jacket was just thrown in the laundry. It wasnt stolen it was left so your angry is wrong. Just a side note ive only just learnt superdry isnt a type of nappy like i thought as i know others think that but a brand of clothing. Might make your husband feel better about losing his jacket.

adults do forget things and make mistake, but don't let that go in the way of your anti-man war

It's clear from people's posts that both women and men forget things. However, since we're apparently having an anti-man war (oh go on then ) I'll just note that the husband said 'I've left my jacket behind' and yet it was OP who emailed the hotel to ask about it..

Try calling the hotel back and ask to speak to the head housekeeper. Sometimes they will have found the lost item and not told reception. Reception sometimes do not check with housekeeping before saying they don't have it.

We ran a B&B and posted stuff back all the time (at no charge). Then again DH and I left all our clothes at a hotel once (we both thought the other had packed and the bag was pretty heavy before anything went in it) and they posted them back for free.

all your clothes

I worked a summer season after school as a cleaner in a hotel in Crete, the amount of left over clothes was unbelievable. It was the hotels policy just to bin it. There would be a full bin bag after every shift on departure days.

I once realised on the plane that I'd left my large wallet behind in the hotel. Credit card, debit card, driving licence, £80 in notes, bunch of keys, work ID smart card and work keys. Rang the hotel as soon as I got home and yes, the cleaner had found it in the back of the safe, handed to the manager who sent it on to me. All the way from Madeira. Fab service.

In my defence, the room safe was down on the floor of the wardrobe and impossible for me to see into the back off (disability means I cannot get down on the floor). DH said he'd checked, but he must have only given it a cursory glance.

I used to work for a company that had venues in very rural locations. People would only be at these locations when an event was happening, the rest of the time it would just be a locked shed. Customers were constantly leaving stuff behind them demanding we drive back, unlock everything, hunt for their item, wrap it up and take it to a post office and pay for posting it to them. It was a complete pita and most of the time we’d just call a customer back 10 minutes later apologising and saying we couldn’t find it. Our boss wanted us to account for every second we were being paid for and hunting for a customers gloves wouldn’t have cut it.

Cleaners in hotels (especially big hotels) work on an incredibly tight schedule. I wouldn’t be surprised if they hadn’t even been asked to look by reception as they’ll be too busy cleaning.

@sycamore54321 has nailed it.
This is nobody's fault but your own.
I would imagine that a huge number of people leave things behind in hotels. They'd probably need to assign a new member of staff to organising and sorting stuff. Even if you pay postage, it's still a large amount of time to find it, package it, take it to post office. Yes, that would be lovely, and I'm sure happens in either small independent hotels, or super expensive ones, but you can't expect it.
Suck it up, and take responsibility for your own stuff.

@PyongyangKipperbang

They get paid around €600 in Portugal and work 6 days a week not that stealing is acceptable but i can see why they might have kept it if it was a nice brand

I left a dress handing in a London hotel wardrobe. It was the only thing in there and the wardrobe was behind a door so it was overlooked on leaving. An hour later it was gone and never seen again.

I would be careful
Accusing someone of stealing can have a huge impact on them.

Over 20 yrs ago when I worked in a 4* hotel as a Chamber maid, I had been on duty for 'turn down' service in the evening - basically go in to the bedrooms, shut curtains, put on lamps and fold covers back.
It's common for guests to leave son5e stuff in theirs beds, and as long as there is not too much, it's our job still to take it off, fold back covers, and replace the items on the bed.

A guest phones from home after checking out saying her £*s camera is missing so can the room be checked.
It wasn't found, so guest accused me of having stolen it.

Work was awful the next few days.
Work questioned me about the room, without quite accusing me, but even my close colleagues were off with me and giving me funny looks.

Several days later the guest phones back to let the hotel know that "silly me, I found it in one of my hat boxes, haha"

No apology. From her, or hotel management.

Was weeks before work got mostly back to normal for me.

But also, I agree eith others re making sure they have actually spoken to housekeeping.

Front desk staff and hotel management often wouldn't even bother to speak to us lowly housekeepers.

We never had anything nice left behind and not claimed eventually though.
Apart from the odd scarf

We did however get all sorts of unmentionable left behind

But that's another thread

How much do you think the cleaners get paid?
I worked as a poorly paid cleaner, never once stole anything.

Do you think all poor people are likely to be thieves? Or just hotel cleaners?

I doubt it’s been “stolen”

I think it’s wrong to turn your oversight onto someone else. That’s really not fair