Comforters, toothbrushes, phone chargers, jackets, ID cards… Many objects are often forgotten in hotel rooms during vacations or during a business trip. Very often, hoteliers only store valuable items. However, if French law does not require hotel managers to put in place a lost and found management policy, it does require these items to be stored for 3 years. Article 2276 of the Civil Code explains that “he who has lost a thing can claim it for three years from the day of the loss or theft against the person in whose hands he finds it”. In other words, a hotel guest has 3 years from the loss of his item to come forward in order to recover his dues.
When we realize that we have forgotten an object in our hotel room, the first instinct is naturally to contact the establishment to first find out if the object in question is not lost, and to find a way to get it back. But can the hotelier return our forgotten belongings to us?
Is the hotel obligated to return my forgotten belongings to me?
A study carried out by the firm Coach Omnium, specializing in strategic consulting and marketing and economic studies for the hotel industry, has shown that objects without market value found in hotels are often thrown away, without being stored. Some hotels even allow their staff to help themselves to the latest finds. If no one is interested, the item is then donated to an association. Finally, when it comes to items like battery chargers, they are in most cases made available to other customers.
Although large hotels immediately offer the sending of forgotten items, this remains rare. Indeed, if there are few shipments by post it is because they are expensive for the hotelier. On the one hand, it is not always easy to get reimbursed by the customer, on the other hand, hotel staff waste time managing shipments.
In summary, if you have forgotten your belongings in a hotel, the hotel is under no circumstances obliged to send them back to you by post, but there is no cost in asking… As long as your item has been preserved!
Can we claim compensation in the event of lost items at the hotel?
When you stay in a hotel, it is always responsible for the disappearance of its guests’ luggage, clothing or other items. Emmanuel Eslin, lawyer atUFC-What to choose indicates to our colleagues Parisian that the responsibility of the hotelier is engaged even when no negligence can be blamed on him. According to the lawyer, he can only be exempted from this responsibility in the event of the traveler’s fault, such as a large sum of money left visible in a vehicle parked in the hotel parking lot, a French window remained open all night, easily accessible from the garden without having requested that valuables be put in the safe or in the event of force majeure.
However, Emmanuel Eslin emphasizes that this surveillance obligation ceases upon the client’s departure, unless he has expressly agreed to keep certain of his belongings after returning the room.
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