Managing Lost and Found at Your Hotel or Bed & Breakfast

The lost and found is a necessary evil in the world of hotels and Bed and Breakfasts. It's a pain to manage and if mishandled, can be detrimental to your reputation.

Lost and Found, Theft and Liability

The lost and found is a necessary evil in the world of hotels and Bed and Breakfasts. It's a pain to manage and if mishandled, can be detrimental to your reputation.

By Nathan Gawlik
Nathan Gawlik's experience includes being a General Manager of a Hampton Inn and other front line roles such as a Banquet Captain, Front Desk Agent, Housekeeper, Catering Event Manager, and Director of Sales.

I had an unfortunate situation early in my career that taught me a lot. A guest called to say they left their golf shorts behind. I confirmed I had them stowed away in our lost and found. The gentleman indicated that he would be by in a couple of weeks to pick them up. Those couple weeks turned into a couple of months. By the time he was back, the lost and found had been purged and unknowingly, his shorts were discarded.

The guest claimed they were $200 shorts. The situation escalated to my manager. These two guys disagreed on the best resolution. The guest claimed he wanted to be reimbursed the $200, while my manager indicated due to wear and tear that his shorts couldn't possibly be worth $200 at the time they were lost.

We provided the guest with a $100 credit to our pro shop. Neither he nor my manager was satisfied with the outcome. It seemed to be a lose-lose situation that certainly could have been handled better.

A Good Rule of Thumb for Lost and Found

As a general rule, sympathizing with a guest that claims something is lost or stolen should always be your first response. Even if things get tense, if a guest claims you stole their priceless item for example, never indicate to the guest that you believe they are lying. Take their claim seriously and follow up. Likewise, don't admit fault or offer compensation. You don't want to set precedents on reimbursements.

I would suggest stating the following; "Thank you for letting us know this item has been misplaced. We take every lost and found claim very seriously. We will do everything in our power to investigate and recover the item."

The Importance of a Lost and Found Protocol

This might be stating the obvious but there is still a case to be made of liability if the property is negligent in handling a lost and found or stolen property situation. Be sure to document everything to show a good faith effort and to, ideally, return the item to the guest. The worst-case scenario is a stolen item. To protect yourself, assume that any lost and found is a stolen item and follow the below procedure:

1) First, check lost and found
You should have an area where items are kept for 90 days, organized by month. If the item is immediately found, get shipping and payment details. Don't offer to hold the item. You are a hotel, not a storage unit. Some hotels will be gracious and offer to hold an item for 72 hours once it's been claimed. After that, the item will be discarded. Make that clear to the guest.

2) Fill out an incident report
There are incident report templates available online for just about every situation. There are property damage, personal injury, employee injury, and lost and found incident reports that you can easily be adapted to your property. Pertinent details like item description, date/time item was last seen, date/time the item was reported missing, guest contact information, and reservation details should be included in the report.

3) Audit, also known as interrogate, the guest room lock
If an item is reported stolen, interrogate the guest room door lock to get a timeline of who entered the room at what times.

4) Check the cameras
If your property has any that might be useful in this situation. Be sure to save the footage in a safe place.

5) Conduct employee interviews
It may be necessary to set up interviews with employees if your investigation leads to that. Get written statements from any associates that entered the room in the time window indicated from the report, like housekeeping or maintenance. If nothing was stolen, these written statements can help to protect them personally. It is in the employee's best interest to cooperate with the investigation.

6) Get written statements from any employees that may have entered the guest room.
If possible, get a written statement from the guest if they believe the lost item to be stolen.

7) Offer to involve the police
The guest must speak with the police directly regarding their personal property in question. Get the police report number and add it to your incident report.

8) Be cautious when committing
If the guest is insistent on an immediate reimbursement, courteously let them know compensation will not be possible, and in rare situations such as these, the property follows a precise investigation process. Reassure them that you are doing your best to resolve the issue, and no matter how long the investigation takes, you will follow up with them as the situation develops. Sometimes just showing him or her that you take the situation seriously is enough to appease them.

9) Return and report all documentation
Finally, share the results of the investigation with the guest. Fully explain the efforts that have been made in exhaustive detail to communicate your sincere desire to return their lost item. If the item wasn't able to be found, only at this point would I refer to your state's statute of limitations, your policy protecting you against liability, or refer the guest to your insurance representatives - if they wish to make a claim. State something like, "We can forward the claim on to our insurance representatives for further evaluation". This is when the guest's written statement would be good to have, along with the police report number. As a good rule of thumb, I would provide all the documentation collected to both the insurance company and the guest for their records. At this point, the property will no longer be involved and your job is done. Further discussions with the guest about the issue may only complicate things further.

Unfortunately, unless an employee outright admits guilt, was seen by a witness stealing the item, or they are caught on camera, it's unlikely you will be able to determine if the item was taken.

Worst Case Scenario

Dealing with theft is a terrible situation. I hired an associate to work the front desk that was eventually determined to be an addict. She had worked the evening shift the day before and arrived early to work claiming she wanted to help in housekeeping. I explained to her we didn't need help in housekeeping that day.

Even still she arrived to work early anyway but disappeared for nearly an hour - causing the person she was relieving to leave late. I should have recognized the signs of her abnormal behavior at that time but unfortunately she was able to access several guest rooms and searched for prescription pills and cash.

The victim didn't realize her guest room had been rummaged through until after one in the morning during her failed search for her medication. The General Manager was called in. After interrogating the lock and matching the time up with the cameras, it was evident that the police needed to be involved. However, the guest didn't want to press charges even though she claimed to have lost $600 in cash. If she had pressed charges, she would likely need to get a lawyer or return for a court date.

The guest was able to get another prescription of her medications using the police report. The General Manager decided to wave the entire cost of the guest stay, which in hindsight was likely not the best legal step to take. However, sympathy and decency led him to have compassion for their situation.

A police officer was present when we terminated the employee. She claimed to have taken all of the medication already and didn't know anything about the $600. The officer tried to force the issue a bit but ultimately if the guest wasn't willing to press charges, the employee knew she wouldn't be arrested or her personal belongings searched.

This particular employer did not perform background checks during the hiring process.

Other Ways to Protect Your Hotel

Having a release of liability like the below example may be helpful during check-in. Although, keep in mind that if guests want to sue, they may.

Release
By acceptance of these policies, Guests agree to indemnify, shield, and preserve innocent the proprietors of [Insert Bed and Breakfast, L.L.C.] and its representatives from all claims, disputes, litigation, judgments, costs, and lawyer charges ensuing from loss, harm, or damage to guests and occupants, and licensees of guests.

Guests or their private property, inclusive of vehicles, are not insured by the property owners against loss or harm due to fire, theft, vandalism, rain, water, crook or negligent acts of others, or any different cause. Please examine and recognize our insurance policies prior to making your reservation.

Many properties choose to have their guests sign something like this on their online policies during booking, at check-in, or both.

Signage should also be posted in your guest rooms that state the property's liability is limited. Often this is posted with the emergency exit information on the back of the guest room door.

Understand that while the above protects your liability and is a good business practice, promptly replying to a worried guest with your policies upon an initial inquiry is hardly good customer service. Exercise a bit of empathy and only point to the futile nature of their claim if the situation escalates to that, as detailed in step 9 above. You don't want to antagonize them or force them to dig their heels in.

Likewise, be sure to educate yourself on your state's innkeeper statutes regarding liability. Here you may also find detailed information surrounding safety deposit boxes and in-room safes that may be helpful. Many properties have gone away from in-room safes, given they are cost-prohibitive. For more information on in-room safes, click here to read our article.

A Different Response for Different Circumstances

As a good measure, make a policy to store found items of particular value in a safe location like the manager's office. These would include, wallets, keys, laptops, etc. These items are the only ones I'd make an effort to return immediately. Nail files, pillows, and garments aren't worth the effort of tracking down their owner.

If there is a sticking point causing tension between the property and a guest's claims for something of little value, do what you can to be of service. Things like chargers are misplaced all the time. I would suggest keeping some low-cost chargers on hand for guest use.

In this case, I would just go ahead and offer something to the guest to make up for it, whether it is a reimbursement, credit to their bill, or just go to the store and buy a replacement.

When making such decisions, you should always be thinking of what is in the property's best interest while showing the guest the utmost genuine care.

"Never insinuate that the report is untruthful or somehow the guest's fault."

When making such decisions, you should always be thinking of what is in the property's best interest while showing the guest the utmost genuine care.

Incident

In my role as General Manager, I remember one incident that intensified quickly. I received a call from a guest who claimed a rare gold necklace had been misplaced. He explained that the necklace featured St. Peter on it and had been a gift to his wife some 30 years ago. I could tell from the man's voice that he was elderly.

I immediately grabbed the device to interrogate the door lock in case the item had been stolen. I also called the head of maintenance primarily as a witness. We were able to determine that the door entering his guest room could be seen by our hallway cameras.

We both headed up to the room where the guest was waiting. I introduced myself as the manager and my colleague. I started to take a detailed description of the item on our incident report form, while the guest continued to look for it.

After I documented his information, I began to troubleshoot with him. "Did you check here," I said, pointing to the small pocket of his suitcase. "Where was the last place you saw it," I asked. "Do you mind if we help you look for it; I don't want to disturb your personal belongings."

After getting permission, I opened the top drawer of the dresser and found a plastic white and clear bag with several smaller zip compartments. In each compartment were small items of ornate jewelry. Several pairs of earrings were in one compartment and several necklaces in another. Among the necklaces piled on top of each other was one that matched the description of the one the guest was missing. I pulled it out to ask, "could this be it?"

Much to the guests, surprise and embarrassment, it was the necklace that he had been searching for now for nearly half an hour. The guest was relieved but not nearly as much as I was knowing just how much work might result from such an incident.

Summary

Lost and found is serious business. No guest wants to think that their personal belongings have been stolen on their vacation. Coming to this conclusion can be detrimental to the experience of that entire stay. Ensure you know what to say in response to these situations and ensure the response is uniform among guest-facing staff. Having a plan can protect you from liability, court fines and fees, and much more.

Ninety percent of the time, the items left behind are socks or other items that can easily be replaced, but occasionally these items could be priceless jewelry or other valuables. When something is reported lost, always take it seriously. Never insinuate that the report is untruthful or somehow the guest's fault.

Likewise, don't compensate the guest in serious circumstances. Beyond the fact that your insurance would likely cover circumstances like this, doing so at the property level could be admitting fault in the eyes of the court, should it come to that. Now, if someone misplaces their toothbrush and you provide them one to use - that is fundamentally different. If a high-value item is misplaced, reassure the guest that situations like this are extremely rare and as such, the property follows precise guidelines.

This is yet another example where a minimum wage Front Desk Agent could cause a great deal of harm while trying to be helpful if they say the wrong thing; most often, a manager should get involved. This further promotes the need for a Survival Resource Guide for all agents to have access to in rare but serious situations. To read that article click here.

Resources

iLeftMyStuff: Lost and Found Software
Quore: Lost and Found Software
Hotel Liability for Guest Belongings

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