The top five places to check before checking out of your hotel guest room!

Working at a hotel it is not uncommon for us to get 2-3 phone calls a day, 5-6 a day on busy leisure travel weekends, from guest’s who have left items behind in their guest rooms. We then package these items and send them home. We know at the hotel that there are many reasons why items are left behind, waking late for the board meeting, stressed out from that new job interview, or just being a parent and having your attention span cut in half. Earlier today I was talking with our house keeping manager and we came up with a check list of the top five places you should look before checking out of your hotel room. We hope that using this list is quick and easy way to remember some of those items we all commonly leave behind.

1. Check all the wall outlets.

The most commonly left behind item is the cell phone, mp3, laptop, Kindle, Nintendo or PlayStation chargers. These are so easy to overlook, and sometimes hard or expensive to replace.

2. The bathroom counter.

The makeup or bathroom bags are handy little bags that hold all your toiletries in one place. Yet these handy items seem easy to forget and are left behind many times. We don’t always go back into the bathroom on our way out, but we should. While you are checking the sink area for this bag, don’t forget to look in the shower for any shampoos you might have missed.

3. The night stand, and the floor around it.

There are many odds and ends that we pull out of our pockets at the end of the night that get stacked on the night stands. Watches, wallets, work ID cards, wedding rings, bracelets, glasses and medications are most commonly left here or knocked off the night stand accidentally. Take a second and scan the area, while shampoo is easy to replace realizing you left your wallet on the night stand can make traveling become difficult at best.

4.  The pillow

Many of us, me included, can not sleep without our own pillow. Yet this item may be one of the most overlooked items when glancing around the room before check out. It just fits in. Pillows belong on the bed. One of the easiest was to avoid leaving this precious item behind is putting a outrageous colored pillow case on it. Most hotel pillows are going to be white, or off white. Try throwing your pillow in a bright orange or pink pillow case, you can usually find them in the kids section of any department store, you won’t miss that when doing a quick look around.

5. The closet

I can not tell you how many pairs of running shoes I have mailed back to guests, sometimes jackets or hoodies. On the rare occasion a fanny pack. These are commonly left in the closest and forgotten. Just before you leave the room, even if you think you have everything, just open the closet and take a quick look around. Especially if you are like me and are from some where warmer and traveling somewhere cooler. I personally always forget my jacket when leaving a hotel, because I’m not used to wearing one out.

There are many other areas that we could add to this list, but these top five places we think will help with the most commonly left behind items at hotels. Oh I will add as a side note, before leaving the hotel always taken a second and smile in the bathroom mirror. As much as we love your smile we don’t need you to leave those pearly whites behind.  (Yes, it does happen)