Hotel lost property - do I have any rights?

kade9

Hi All,

I recently left a jacket at a hotel. On the day of check out (19th July) I realised my mistake and phoned the hotel.

They confirmed they had the jacket and said they would post it to me for a charge. I gave them my card details and waited for the jacket to arrive.

After two weeks of waiting it hadn't arrived so I called the hotel. They confirmed it was posted on 23rd July and they followed up with Royal Mail but were unable to track it down.

I'm left with making a compensation claim with Royal Mail. To do that I need proof of postage. The hotel (Novotel Liverpool) have not replied to my messages requesting this.

I contacted Accor Hotels (the owners of Novotel) and they arranged for the Hotels General Manager to contact me. He emailed to say who would investigate. That was four days ago and I'm still waiting.

Does anyone one know if I have any rights in the situation?

Any insight greatly appreciated!

joee_91

I'm not entirely sure if I'm correct here, and I'm hoping someone will correct me if I am wrong, but is it not up to the sender to chase things up with RM? I thought the sender was liable until it was delivered.

custardy

sender or recipient can claim
however its generally easier for the sender given they have the POP and know the details of the item.
Given the OP paid postage(and as such for a service)
I would expect the hotel to compensate/make the claim themselves

kade9

Thanks both for the reply's. Unfortunately it turned out the hotel never charged me for the postage. That made me dubious that they ever actually sent it, but they insist they did.

Now I can't get them to give me proof of postage. So I'm left with two things that I'm hoping give me some sort of recourse:

1. They told me they had my jacket.

2. They won't provide proof of postage.

Anyone know of any route I can go down to recoup my loss on the jacket?

mattyprice4004

kade9 wrote: »

Thanks both for the reply's. Unfortunately it turned out the hotel never charged me for the postage. That made me dubious that they ever actually sent it, but they insist they did.

Now I can't get them to give me proof of postage. So I'm left with two things that I'm hoping give me some sort of recourse:

1. They told me they had my jacket.

2. They won't provide proof of postage.

Anyone know of any route I can go down to recoup my loss on the jacket?

How is it unfortunate they did it as a favour, and chose not to charge you?

I have an unholy amount of items go missing with RM, I'd imagine if you accused the hotel of not posting the jacked they'd get pretty annoyed and probably wouldn't be of much further help.

justifier

in the nicest possible way, who left the jacket at the hotel? The hotel have obviously tried to help and unfortunately something has gone wrong somewhere? What would have happened if the hotel couldn't find your jacket originally? If i were you I would just write it off as a loss.

kade9

Don't get me wrong, I'm appreciative they were prepared to post it back to me. They did say they would charge me though and took my card details.

They were doing me a favour going to the effort of posting it after my error. I'm not sure that not charging me was a favour though.

I'm adding up the fact they never charged me, the fact the jacket never arrived and the fact they won't provide me proof of postage and questioning whether it was ever sent.

That's not what matters now though.

All I'm after is proof of postage so I can make a claim with Royal Mail. As they won't give me this I'm wondering if anyone knows if I have any recourse with the hotel to cover the loss of my jacket. Cheers.

Evilm

kade9 wrote: »

I'm adding up the fact they never charged me, the fact the jacket never arrived and the fact they won't provide me proof of postage and questioning whether it was ever sent.

That's not what matters now though.

All I'm after is proof of postage so I can make a claim with Royal Mail. As they won't give me this I'm wondering if anyone knows if I have any recourse with the hotel to cover the loss of my jacket. Cheers.

So because things aren't working your way you are assuming that someone has deliberately stolen the item? Whether this happened or not it doesn't matter - you have no recourse to chase it up and however would you expect to prove it? Winding yourself up about it isn't going to do any good.

No, IMO, you do not have a right to the proof of postage or to claim from them for the loss.

kade9

Thanks all for your input. Just to be clear I'm not accusing anyone of stealing my jacket. I did question though whether a large city centre hotel with a large number of staff had planned to do something and then, as Justifier says, something has gone wrong somewhere.

The tone of this thread seems to be suggesting I'm being unreasonable. Before I accept that as being the case please just answer this question for me.

Lets say you traveled a long distance to come and stay with me, and then when you got home you realised you had left something valuable at my place. You phone to confirm that I have it and I agree to post it back to you.

Two weeks later it has not arrived. I confirm I posted it with Royal Mail.

You accept that you made the mistake of leaving your valuable and you appreciate the effort I've gone to in finding and posting it.

Would you still ask me for proof of postage so you could make a claim with the carrier whose error has cost you, or would you immediately write off your loss?

CoolHotCold

I'd ask, but if you never responded to my messages asking for it I'd drop the subject and chalk it up to my mistake in forgetting about the item in the first place.

arcon5

It could be they never obtained POP or lost it rather than them never having posted it. This is assuming the item is too large to be squished in to a postbox in which case POP would have never have been obtained.