GUESTS staying at Travelodge's York hotels have left behind items including a pair of fish called Gin & Tonic, a collection of old love letters, a company’s annual audit files - and a mother-in-law!

The budget hotel has revealed some of the more unusual things left by almost 19 million guests at its 542 UK hotels over the past year - and some of the most bizarre were at its branches in York.

One new bride staying at York Central Travelodge drove off without remembering she was meant to give her mother-in-law a lift back home to Cambridge during a gap between her wedding and honeymoon.

A spokeswoman said the bride only realised when she got home that she had forgotten to pick up her most important new family member, who was waiting patiently in the cafe.

She said another guest, staying at the new Travelodge in Layerthorpe,  left behind a pair of Oranda fish called Gin & Tonic in a biOrb tank and a collection of old love letters was left at the firm's hotel in Micklegate.

Other items left behind at York hotels included a company’s annual audit files, an Alice Temperley wedding dress and an autograph book. All the items were returned to their owners, she said.

Elsewhere in the UK, a pilot in a rush to get to the airport left his pilot’s licence at Gatwick Airport Travelodge. The hotel manager personally took the licence to the airport.

Meanwhile, an executive who left behind his 50-year-old teddy bear called Rupert at Aberdeen Travelodge sent his PA to collect the bear as he could not sleep without him and a businessman took a day’s holiday to return from the Netherlands to collect a 'lucky' fountain pen worth £8,000, saying he could not sign any paper work without it.