Stuff forgotten in room [rant]

[zbenye]

On a recent stay at the Whitcomb in San Francisco, I forgot some cards in the desk drawer. Three were easily replaceable (my Marriott and Hilton frequent guest cards, and a club card) and one was a Target gift card worth about $10.

Several inquiries with housekeeping yielded nothing.

I can't decide which of the following possibilities angers me more:

1. The maid found the cards. These had my name on them except the gift card, so the hotel could have returned them to me. The maid wanted the gift card but couldn't turn in the other cards because then she would be hard-streched to explain how she found those but not the gift card. So she took the gift card and got rid of the others. Or;
   
2. The next guest in that room found the cards and did not turn them over to the hotel. Fine. My issue here is that if the next guest found the cards, it means that the maid never cleaned the room appropriately. When I go into a hotel room, I expect that it had been carefully inspected and cleaned by housekeeping, including drawers along with anything I might use in the room.
   

Either way, I hold housekeeping responsible for the loss. Therefore, I quickly recovered the small loss by not leaving any tip on my last stay. Also, I came up with this devious idea of how to reward/punish maids for cleaning/not cleaning: I now leave the day-of-departure tip inside the desk drawer if there is one, or the bottom dresser drawer. If the maid inspects the drawers as she should - she finds the tip. If she doesn't - she gets nothing and the next guest enjoys a cash "welcome gift".

[Colfax]

Sorry you lost your cards. What a nuisance.

Personally I wouldn't hide my tip because I want the maid to know it's from ME. If she finds money in a bottom drawer she might wonder whether it was from me or some previous guest. She might wonder whether it was intended to be a tip at all.

[Iluvadeal]

I don't care if a maid knows I left her a few bucks, I'll never see her again and if our paths did cross I wouldn't know her. You never really see the person cleaning your room.

[Colfax]

I don't care if a maid knows I left her a few bucks, I'll never see her again and if our paths did cross I wouldn't know her. You never really see the person cleaning your room.

I prefer small hotels over large ones and I tend to stay in the same hotels over and over, sometimes for weeks at a time.

Also I don't like room service more than every 3 days or so. Every day I exchange towels and get more soap and coffee and etc in a face to face interaction with the maid in the hallway.

So I do have sort of a relationship with the maids in several hotels, who recognize me as a regular customer and know my needs and habits. And I like them to know that the tip came from me.

Just my own travel style.

[garbear]

If I tip them I like to leave them a note. =) haha. Corny. yes.

If I need more towels or If I need any extras like pillows blankets ETC.... I feel I have to tip them. I never feel right if I don't I give them about 2-3 dollars! 4 if there FAST!

[tweekerz]

I hold the maid responsible

LOL. You are the one who left them in there.

No need for morals and pointing fingers. This world today, is not going to meet to yours, or anyones expectations. We just have to be smart enough to live in it.

The Homewood Suites in Oakland, CA returned my Wife's fleec jacket back to us Priority Mail.

Not too bad.

I always communicate with the housekeeper, because then they remember me. I do ask if they will continue to clean the same area of the hotel, and when their day off is, to consider a different gratuity if needed.

Once someone knows what you are about, they have a reason to clean or organize something and feel rewarded for doing it, rater than just doing a job.

[zbenye]

I hold the maid responsible

LOL. You are the one who left them in there.

Yes, of course it was me who left them in there. That's why I prefaced my post with [rant]... but thanks anyway for pointing out the obvious ;-) Here's to a new year with no losses.

[craezie]

Housekeeping is not always bad. I'd like to post a nice story to counteract all of the negative ones.

Last summer I went on vacation in North Carolina with my mom, without my husband. We stayed at the Homewood Suites in Cary, NC for several nights through a $38 Priceline deal (with the help of this board, of course). While I was there, I lost my wedding set, both the $1500 diamond engagement ring and $350 band. I was pretty sure it was lost in the room, so we turned it upside down (or so we thought) before leaving. We were unable to locate them, so I assumed that they were gone forever and I was going to have to face the wrath of my husband. I left my cell # at the front desk just in case.

Well the maid found them when she was turning the room over. Somehow they slipped into the crack of the bed and got caught in the elastic pouch at the bottom of the mattress pad. No one would ever have known, but she turned them into her manager and they called me! They had the rings enroute by FedEx before my plane even took off and I had to face my husband.

How's that for great service, especially for a customer who only paid $38?

[zbenye]

How's that for great service, especially for a customer who only paid $38?

Housekeers are awesome people in most places. I rarely have bad experience with them. I trust that you were good enough to both leave a fair tip for the maid when you left, despite the upset from the loss at the time, and to reimburse the hotel for the FedEx shipping cost.

[123slb]

I had the misfortune to leave behind a Petzl headlamp and paperback book between the pillows of my bed at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando last week (not a Priceline stay). Despite 4 chats with the maid and friendly notes left with daily tips during my stay, she apparently did not turn over my property. After reporting the items left behind to the hotel's "security" their "investigation" revealed and resulted in zippo. I checked with them three times.

Now, we're only talking about $50 or so to replace these things, but I cannot understand why they were not recovered. The maid seemed a lovely person and it is absolutely impossible that she did not find them on the last day. Did the security people glomm on when they have their hands on them? Did they fall prey to higher up in housekeeping after they were turned in? I'm left wondering, and seething! I was just so sure that I'd get them back!!