Hotel gave our gift to the wrong people

[Horriblewoman]

This is incredibly outing so hi to anyone I know, you guys are amazing!

We got married recently, my best friend gave the hotel we were staying in after the wedding a very special package to put in our room which included gifts for our honeymoon.

The hotel put it in the wrong room (of another bride and groom staying there) even though she'd given them our names.

The other bride and groom took it (!!) Even though it had our name on and a card written to us.

I'm appalled at how awful the hotel dealt with this, they gave us a voucher as a replacement )for a beauty treatment which we'd both never use) and were basically like I'm really sorry but there's nothing we can do.

We'd paid for the hotel in advance so couldn't ask for a discount but is there anything else we can do? Am I just being angry for the sake of it? I'm just really sad that my beautiful friend put so much effort into something that we aren't going to enjoy because we left for our honeymoon shortly afterwards.

Is the hotel liable at all or is anything that they offer just goodwill?

The hotel made a mistake.

The other couple took a present with your name on it - obviously not theirs. It's theft. I would advise the hotel that you are contacting the police to report it as such.

I think this is theft by finding and it's actually the other couple who have broken the law I'd be telling the hotel you want to pursue a civil case and will be instructing solicitors.

Escalate it with the hotel, don't let it drop,they made the mistake and it's up to them to rectify it to your satisfaction.

@PegasusReturns

I don’t know what the answer is but I overheard a conversation in a hotel I was staying at where a gentleman had travelled up to discuss with the manager the fact that he had arranged for a bottle of champagne that had been bought on the day the bride was born and was appropriately expensive and engraved with their wedding date or some such had been left in the wrong room and been drunk by the wrong guests.

He was distraught and the manager unhelpful. Rather put me off the hotel to be honest.

Omg that’s awful

www.ceoemail.com/index.php?s=A

Is the hotel on here? I've used the details from here before and they range in person to apologise when I complained about something and refunded.

The hotel made a mistake and have trued to rectify it the other couple have actually committed a criminal offence.

@Suitcaseseverywhere

Tell the hotel you’re going to report it to the police as theft.

This. Because that is what it is. I would also write to the Hotel Manager and, if a chain, to the MD of the chain.

It may be the other couple who 'stole' the gift, but the hotel took responsibility for placing the gift in the correct room.

It may be the other couple who 'stole' the gift, but the hotel took responsibility for placing the gift in the correct room.

Exactly. It's the equivalent of, say, agreeing to keep something valuable of yours for safety and then handing it over to someone else. They wouldn't contemplate just handing over a voucher as compensation for that. They presumably have insurance to cover the expense.

@Whinginadeville

I think this is theft by finding and it's actually the other couple who have broken the law I'd be telling the hotel you want to pursue a civil case and will be instructing solicitors.

Not sure that it is. It could be, for instance, that they just thought there'd been a cock-up with a third party supplier and someone had put the wrong card in or something. Either way, I doubt the CPS would risk prosecuting.

I can’t imagine anyone who’d knowingly steal from other newlyweds on their first day of marriage, who wants that kind of karma?!

The hotel made a mistake that should have been able to be easily rectified if it weren’t for the other couple taking it. Have they at least made the effort to contact the other couple and explain the mistake? If they haven’t, they are equally to blame.

You, or ideally your friend, could try and do a social media shoutout to the other couple and hope it finds them and shames them.

the other couple have actually committed a criminal offence

If it can be proven that they permanently intended to deprive. They could quite easily defend this by saying they didn’t notice it wasn’t one of their wedding gifts, unless it was a giant portrait of the OP and her husband or something; and then it’d be down to a court to see if they believed the theft was intentional.

You could contact the paper local to the hotel and see if they're interested in the story of how the hotel ruined your wedding and honeymoon, that'd get their attention 😁

Surprised by some of the responses here. I'd be surprised if the other couple deliberately "stole" the item. They probably either didn't notice that there were different names on the card, or did but assumed it was a supplier cock-up. If, on my wedding day, I'd come back to my hotel room to find a gift on my bed, I think I would have taken it at face value!

I bet if you look at the terms and conditions that the hotel have themselves covered for wedding gifts going a miss. Many hotels will not put gifts and such in Bridal suites etc anymore as they do not want to be responsible for them going lost.

The person who handed in the gift needs to chase this up and request that the hotel and ask them to contact the other couple. They most likely just packed up the gifts without looking

What has the hotel done to follow up with the other couple?

There's absolutely no way the police would persue a criminal complaint against the other couple. They were getting married and a wedding hamper was left in their room. They made the assumption it was there's. You can't prove they saw that it was intended for someone else. Your best course of action would be a small claims civil case against the hotel to recover the cost of the hamper.

If the friend paid it may be for them to pursue it , not recipient. At what point was it realised it was missing?

Have you tried tracking the other bride & groom down on social media, type some key words plus name of hotel & date and you might be able to find out who they were?

Does the hotel have Twitter/Facebook? If so get on there and mention it. The couple might not see it, but potential customers will.

Well the Greta thing is that the hotel have the names and address of the couple that stole your gift. It’s theft.

(Great, not Greta )

@amylou8

There's absolutely no way the police would persue a criminal complaint against the other couple. They were getting married and a wedding hamper was left in their room. They made the assumption it was there's. You can't prove they saw that it was intended for someone else. Your best course of action would be a small claims civil case against the hotel to recover the cost of the hamper.

I agree. Where do people live where the police would do anything at all about this? Trumpton?

The op doesn’t say it’s a hamper?

Report the couple to the police for theft. They deliberately took something of which they knew it wasn’t theirs. If someone had left their wallet in that hotel room and they would have taken it and used credit cards it would be theft too, I don’t see how this is any different.

The hotel staff should be deeply and thoroughly ashamed about how they have handled this. Ofcourse their solution is completely unacceptable. Have you spoken to the Hotel Manager directly? If you don’t know their name, try finding them on LinkedIn. Tell them you’re going to pursue them for the value of this gift unless they completely financially compensate you or your friend for the gift. In actual money, not in vouchers. And please shame the fuck out of them by leaving a shit review about their service on every review / booking site you can find. Describe what happened to you exactly. They won’t be happy about it but in this case they 100% owe it to themselves and you can remove the bad reviews if they come forward and solve this PROPERLY.