Inventory of items left behind by hotel guests

5:55pm Wednesday 10th October 2007

Comments (9)   Have your say »

QUESTION: What's the connection between saucy underwear, adult toys, mobile phone chargers and a lion's head?

Answer: They have all been left behind by guests staying at one of York's biggest hotels.

More than 1,800 belongings were handed in to the Royal York Hotel's lost property department over the last 12 months - about five items a day.

An inventory compiled by the housekeeping department shows that mobile phone chargers, adult toys and sexy undies top the list of items most commonly left behind by customers in their bedrooms.

But the lost property also includes mobile phones, contraceptives, car keys, books, cosmetics and clothes.

The oddest thing to be left behind was a ...stuffed lion's head. This was later reunited with its grateful owner, but staff say that the owners of X-rated belongings never ask for them back.

The Royal York's business development manager, Jo Bailey, said that the number one item of lost property was currently mobile phone chargers.

"The amount of chargers that get left behind just beggars belief," she said.

"We find dozens each week, especially after conferences.

"We also find a great deal of adult' toys and associated paraphernalia, so nothing shocks us any more.

"In fact it gives us a bit of a giggle, particularly if we have seen who they belonged to. And the strange thing is, no one ever asks for these possessions back!"

She said that when staff came across car keys, they wondered how guests got home, as the cars were never in the car park.

"One set found under a bed was for a Rolls Royce, and this was never claimed."

She said that, as a rule, most items of lost property were kept for three months, but in some cases, this was extended to six.

The phones and chargers were now being given to local charities.