An undercover investigation by Which? has revealed that several major UK hotel chains struggled to reunite guests with lost property. Researchers deliberately left phones and wallets containing cash in rooms at Premier Inn, Travelodge, Holiday Inn Express, and Britannia hotels.
At the Britannia Hampstead Hotel, an iPhone with an active tracker was not found by staff despite multiple calls, and its location was eventually lost when the battery died. Similarly, a wallet left at Holiday Inn Express Wandsworth was only located in the lost property box after investigators visited the hotel unannounced three days later, despite previous phone calls.
The investigation found that only one hotel, Travelodge in London Battersea, proactively contacted guests about a missing item. Other hotels required guests to call and report their items missing. Policies for returning items also varied, with one hotel offering free postage while another requested a £10 courier fee.
A survey of Which? members indicated that 11% had left something behind in a hotel in the last five years. Of these, less than half (46%) successfully retrieved their belongings.