It is well known that bathrobes from hotels like to get legs. Things often end up in guests’ suitcases that weren’t actually meant to be taken away. And of course, sometimes something is forgotten in the rooms. A sock that fell under the bed, for example, or a charger that was simply too well integrated into the interior when hanging from the socket. Both rather losses that can be squeezed. But, one might think, the case is quite different with some of the items that have accumulated over the past year in the lost and found offices of British hotels in the Travelodge chain. The chain has now made the most bizarre finds public.
Imagine you are a cleaning worker, unsuspectingly open a room door and face Jürgen Klopp. Exactly, the football coach. Not the flesh and blood one, but a life-size Klopp standee, but still. You can forget a display like that, of course, after all it doesn’t complain if you leave it in the corner when you leave. But it should be different with living legacies, right? Probably not. JLO and Ben—in this case, two puppies—were just as forgotten. The owner thought her husband had taken it with him when he left. Aha.
If that sounds whimsical, how about a five-tiered wedding cake, a seven-foot-tall Chinese parade dragon, a sleigh full of Christmas presents, or a collection of love letters spanning 60 years? Among the treasures found were, very British, a striking number of royal souvenirs. The cleaning team at a London Travelodge hotel was amazed when they found a replica of one of Queen Elizabeth’s royal crowns nicely draped on a cushion. Accordingly, the owner, a French jeweller, forgot his Imperial State Crown because he had to catch his train.
His oil painting of Queen Elizabeth in Windsor was so important to another guest that he even rented an extra room for it. But out of sight out of mind. The picture had to be made up for by courier to the USA. Another guest traveled back to London from Jersey himself to pick up a photo album documenting the life of the late Queen. A job that the grandmother started in 1947.
Sometimes the finds are so valuable that your ears start ringing. These include an envelope filled with 10,000 yuan (almost 1,400 euros) that was intended for a wedding couple, a personalized license plate whose value is estimated at the equivalent of almost 17,000 euros and share certificates worth around 280,000 euros.
How can it be that such treasures are simply forgotten? The hotel chain’s spokeswoman, Shakila Ahmed, surmises: “When it comes down to why so many of our customers forget their valuable items, it’s basically because we’re all short on time, juggling many tasks and in a hurry to get from A to get to B. It is easy to forget valuable items in a hurry.”
Quelle: Hospitality and Catering News
