Top ten things guests forget to take home with them from holiday
As the summer holiday season gets into full swing, a Cotswolds based boutique glamping retreat has compiled a list of the top ten things guests always forget to take home with them at the end of their holiday.
Winchcombe Farm Holidays in Upper Tysoe in Warwickshire claim to spend about £50 to £75 per month posting back property that guests leave behind after staying in one of their luxury lodges or tree house. Bikes and engagement rings are just a few of the things they return to guests on a regular basis!
So before you pack your bags to head home from your holiday this year, owners Jo Carroll and Steve Taylor recommend that you double check behind doors and by hot tubs, as these are the most common places to leave your belongings behind.
Here’s a run-down of their top ten list things guests forget to take home with them:
10. Number ten on their hit list is bikes – unbelievably, they’ve now had to reacquaint 4 bikes with their owners, all of which they managed to get hold of by phone before they reached home. Jo said: “Guests leave them on the outside decks and forget to load them into their car. We’ve had to ring several people now and ask them to turn round and come back to collect their bicycle!
9. Number nine is children’s comforters. Jo explained that these often get left in beds and often have calls from frantic parents asking for them to be returned by next day delivery, fearing their child will never sleep again until they are reunited with their bedtime buddy.
8. Number eight on the list is sun hats and sun glasses, normally found in the hammocks in the garden after lazy afternoons basking in the sunshine.
7. Seven is slippers; these are nearly always recovered from underneath beds, particular in our geodesic stargazing domes which have circular beds in for watching the night sky in comfort.
6. Number six is wellies. Jo explained that all their lodges have outside boot racks for walking shoes and wellies, as many of their guests ramble around the surrounding Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and guests just forget to pick them up on departure.
5. Five is gold rings – or jewellery. “Lots of people remove jewellery when they get into their hot tub. We’ve returned wedding and engagement rings, as well as lockets containing ashes and pendants” continued Jo.
4. Number four is flip flops, which also get taken off by hot tubs and forgotten about.
3. Number three is alcohol. Wine left in the wine fridges and vodka in the freezers are the most common. “Sadly these are difficult to post, so we ‘dispose’ of them ‘safely’ hiccupped Steve.
2. Number two is coats, which are nearly always hung on the back of doors and forgotten about.
1. The number one thing guests leave behind is phone chargers. Jo said: “I can’t even begin to count the number of phone chargers I’ve posted back to guests.”
Jo and Steve have introduced a departure checklist to help guests go home with everything they arrived with; “this includes ‘children’ just in case!” said Jo.