It’s an easy mistake to make. You’re rushing around your hotel room trying to remember to pack your toiletries and grab the jacket hanging in the wardrobe, only to realise once you’ve checked out that you have left your wallet behind.
Which? found 11 per cent of travellers surveyed had forgotten something in a hotel room in the last five years.
Phones, tablets, clothing and cosmetics are some of the most common items to leave behind.
But many have discovered getting their items back isn’t always an easy process. In fact, less than half (46 per cent) of respondents in the research were reunited with their belongings.
The consumer champion decided to test out what would happen if they left behind phones and wallets in hotel rooms from some of the UK’s biggest chains.
Which? investigated what would happen if they left behind a phone or a wallet in a hotel room
Each mobile had Apple’s Find My tracking system set up, allowing its exact location to be followed.
Meanwhile, the wallets were stuffed with £30 in cash as well as a slim tracker that could be easily mistaken for a bank card.
The items were left in a spot easy for the cleaner to find and the researchers then waited to be contacted.
The findings were shocking. Out of the seven establishments, only one hotel called the guest to notify them of the missing item and one phone was never returned.
After leaving an iPhone behind at the Britannia Hampstead Hotel in London, the researcher had to contact the hotel four times before they were told the phone had not been found.
However, the tracker showed it had remained at the hotel for several days before the battery died and the location was lost. It still has not been returned to its owner.
A Britannia spokesman told Which?: ‘We are disappointed to hear about this experience, which falls short of the standard of service we aim to provide our guests.
An iPhone left in Britannia Hotel Hampstead was never returned despite tracking suggesting it was there
‘We take all reports of lost property seriously and are reviewing the circumstances of this case, along with our internal lost property procedures, to ensure items are handled consistently and every reasonable effort is made to reunite guests with their belongings.
‘We are committed to learning from this feedback and improving our processes to help prevent this happening again.’
Holiday Inn Express Wandsworth also failed to impress.
The guest called twice about a wallet they had left behind and was told it could not be found.
With the tracker showing it was still at the hotel, the researcher decided to turn up and ask for the wallet in person. They were then reunited with the wallet and cash, which had been sitting in the lost property box.
A spokesman for Holiday Inn Express London, Wandsworth said: ‘We are aware of the concerns raised regarding an item left at the hotel. While the guest was initially advised that the phone could not be located, further checks confirmed it had been found.
‘We take reports relating to guest belongings seriously and have established lost property procedures in place. We regret the confusion caused and are reinforcing these procedures with the team.’
The only hotel to reach out to the guest about a missing item was Travelodge in London Battersea.
A wallet left behind at Holiday Inn Express Wandsworth was only located after the guest went back for it in person after calling twice
Getting the items back was another story. Hotels have varying policies on how items are returned to guests.
Holiday Inn Express ask the individual to arrange and pay for a £10 courier. Meanwhile, Travelodge London City posted an iPhone for free.
According to VisitBritain, hotels are permitted to charge a guest to return an item as long as it is a reasonable amount ‘limited to actual justifiable costs’.
‘You should make every effort to contact the guest to inform them that you have an item belonging to them, rather than just putting it in a lost property box,’ it states.
