Lost/Found Register
If a housekeeping guest room attendant finds any guest-owned article left in the Check-Out room then it is recorded in the Lost/Found Register and sent to the same cell of the housekeeping department. It also records any personal article found in the hotel premises.
| LOST AND FOUND REGISTER | |||||||||
| Sr.No. | Date | Item | Description | Found By | Found At | Picked up By | Address | Contact Number | Sign |
Articles are many times left behind by the guest but at times staffs too pick them while collecting soiled linen from room by
mistake and also with the guest laundry its left back in the pockets of shirt and trouser of guest.
Every item found is recorded in the lost and found register.
Each article is given a “serial No.” which makes it easy to locate in the storage. The best way is by numbers 1/1, 1/3, 2/9 so on.
This means the first thing found in Jan. or 3rd thing found in Jan. and the 9th thing found in Feb. so on. The first number indicates the month and the second number indicates article.
“Where found” means room number or the specific area where the article is found.
“Article and Description” means specification of the article found for e.g. whether its shoe or slipper or sandal and male or ladies
shoes the size and the colour etc.
“Disposal” must be recorded, whether it’s returned to guest or given to finder according to the norms of the hotel. Often some
articles are kept by the hotel and used like any liquor found in the room etc.
On receipt of the article found the Housekeeping control desk records it in the “lost and found register”. The article is packed in
a transparent plastic bag with a lost and found slip containing the details as written in the register and stapled. One copy of the slip is also sent to the front office for information.
Shelving space is divided in the cupboard according to the month, and articles are stored accordingly.
A lost and found enquiry file is also maintained in the department. As sometimes articles for some reason may come later too.
Most hotels keep the less valuable articles for six months. Usually, valuables are kept for one year.
The hotel advises their in-house guest to avail the safety locker facility in Front office cashiers’ office. These days most hotel provide a safety locker box in the wardrobe of the room itself and the guest can have their own code to activate or deactivate it.
Valuables if found are stored in Ex. Housekeeper’s office in safety locker. Key to which is normally with Ex. Housekeeper. At
the time of departure the Ex. Housekeeper seals the key in an envelope and deposits it in Front office cashiers’ office so that the
key is always available. If required the duty manager can collect the keys after signing in the cashiers’ key register do the
needful and return it again in a sealed envelope.
Note: valuables are marked with red ink in “lost and found register”
Guest may phone, write or mail and enquire about his/her lost article. They may ask the hotel to post them or might send
someone on his/her behalf to collect the article or sometimes even may collect it their subsequent visit to the hotel. The hotel does
not charge for postage. The Ex. Housekeeper signs on the register in the disposal column and mentions the address.
If someone else comes to collect the articles we must ask for an authorization letter and get their signature on the register and the tag. Sometimes the guest collects them then we request them to sign on the register.
When the storage time is over articles are returned to the finder. The Ex. Housekeeper signs in the lost and found slip
which acts as a gate pass for the finder (staff). The valuables are auctioned and money distributed amongst the staff. This
normally boosts the morale of the staff.
Each company has slightly different rules/policy about handling lost and found.
Content to be optimised.