Lost & found

I mentioned that I left a newly bought embroidered black linen blouse in Headland Hotel in the Cathay Pacific City complex (Lantau Island). On the way back, about a week later, we checked in again at the hotel. There was no report of a blouse found by Housekeeping. Hence, I lost a new item of good clothing.

Once in London, also a Cathay Pacific-sponsored trip, we were in the Business Lounge at Heathrow. I was just getting used to my reading glasses and I inadvertently left it among the newspapers. It was too much of a hassle to check with Heathrow after some weeks had passed. That taught me a lesson: get rid of annoying and expensive reading glasses! I could not get those off the counter ones because of my high astigmatism. I had laser surgery to correct my vision and I have gotten rid of reading glasses all this time.

In Chicago, my attention was caught by this report in USA TODAY on travelers losing small items. The article started with the case of a seasoned traveler forgetting $20,000.00 worth of jewelry in her hotel safe in Italy last year. (I felt good! I was not the only one, and this lady was carrying a load of expensive jewelry around.) Fortunately, the Marriott Hotel she was staying in Rome shipped the precious items back to her address in the U.S. That’s the advantage of staying in hotels with established reputation.

Computers, keys, mobile phones, eyeglasses, jackets, intimate wear and even wallets are left behind in hotel rooms, airplanes, airports and rented cars – by the millions -- in the U.S. The expensive and unusual ones are returned to their owners, if there are identifications found. For locked computers, there is no way of finding out the owners and to the Salvation Army they would go.

“When traveling, people tend to have lots on their minds, and there are often many unexpected distractions,” University of Michigan psychology professor David Meyer points out. “The combination of too much to keep track of, limited attention for doing so and being in relatively unusual circumstances outside familiar work and home locations promote forgetting about the small stuff being carried along the way.”

Southwest Airlines reported a $10,000.00 diamond engagement ring, an NFL Super Bowl ring and a set of professional video equipment as their most expensive finds, and these were returned to their owners. “Lost and found is a customer service – not a money maker,” American Airline spokesman Tim Smith admits. The cost of returning lost items to their owners is a significant company expense.

Hotels have a policy of giving left items to the employees who found them, after a certain period, like three months. There are items that hotels will not return, and wait for the owner to ask for them. This is to respect guests’ privacy. Who knows what predicament guests may get into when returned items are received by unknowing espouses.

Hyatt Regency in Chicago reports about 20 left items a day or 7,300 items per year! Interestingly, phone chargers are mostly left behind in hotel rooms. A Hyatt Hotel veteran executive Matthew Humphreys shares that each Hyatt hotel he worked in over the years keeps a large container of mobile chargers in Housekeeping. “If you are traveling and find yourself in need of a phone charger, definitely call down and ask housekeeping,” Humphreys suggests. That made me check twice my charger after I charged my phone in Hong Kong. Don’t want to have my charger into the charger bin of the hotel housekeeping!

Two guidelines to prevent forgetting something while traveling: 1) do a checklist when you are upbeat, not tired and sleepy – use this checklist just before you go out of a hotel room or an airplane; 2) follow a regular way of doing things – it is when you change the usual pattern that small things tend to be forgotten.

Well, forgetting things is a tendency while traveling – that I have just discovered to be scientifically vouched by psychologists. The only way to minimize, if not avoid it altogether, is to stick to some guidelines.

Bon voyage! Don’t forget your passport!