Hotel Lost and Found Items Policy: What to Include and How to Run It

Most hotel lost and found problems aren't about the items. They come from a housekeeper who didn't know where to put a phone charger, a front desk agent who released a laptop on a description, and a bin of unclaimed umbrellas nobody dares to throw out. A good hotel lost and found items policy settles those decisions once, in writing, so nobody makes them alone at 4pm on a Sunday.

Decide who owns it before you write a word

A hotel lost and found items policy fails when it describes a process but names no person. Before drafting, settle three ownership questions.

• One custodian per shift pattern. In most independent hotels this is the executive housekeeper or a senior attendant, with the front desk supervisor as backup. Name the role, not the individual, so the policy survives turnover.
• One place. Everything found in the building ends up in one locked location. Items sitting in a floor closet, a bellman's cupboard or a manager's desk are the ones that go missing.
• One log. Paper binder, spreadsheet or software, it doesn't matter. What matters is that an item doesn't exist until it is logged, and it doesn't leave until the log says so.

Then write the policy on one to two pages. If staff can't find the rule they need in ten seconds, they will improvise. Structure it around the elements below, in the order an item moves through the building.

Intake and tagging: the first ten minutes decide everything

Most lost items are found by housekeeping, so the intake rule has to work for an attendant with a cart, not a manager at a desk.

• Turn in by end of shift, at the latest. Attendants hand found items to the floor supervisor or custodian the same day. Nothing stays on the cart overnight.
• Log at the point of handover. Record the date, exact room or public area, who found it, and a plain description. Write "black leather wallet, brown stitching," not "wallet."
• Tag every item, and bag it. Each item gets a unique number that matches the log entry. Small items go in a sealed, numbered bag. Keep the tag on the item, not just on the bag.
• Record the guest's checkout date and room if the item came from a room. That lets you contact the guest without searching.
• Two people for anything of value. Cash, jewelry, electronics and documents are counted or described by the finder and the custodian together, and both initial the entry.

Also settle what counts as "lost property" at all. Fully used toiletries, obvious rubbish, and open food and drink don't. Write that down so attendants don't have to judge it. Anything that looks like medication goes to the custodian, is logged and bagged, and is never opened or sorted through.

Storage and retention: set the clock and stick to it

Retention is the section most policies leave vague, and it causes the most arguments. Pick periods, write them down, and apply them without exceptions made on the spot.

A workable structure:

• Ordinary items (clothing, books, chargers, umbrellas): hold for 30 to 90 days. Choose based on your storage space and guest mix. A resort with long-haul guests may want the longer end.
• Electronics and valuables: hold longer, often 90 days or more, in a locked cabinet or safe, separate from ordinary items.
• Perishables: discard within 24 hours, and log the disposal.
• Hazardous items (needles and other sharps, leaking chemicals, swollen or damaged batteries): these aren't lost property. Staff leave them where they are, keep people away, and call the duty manager, who handles them under the property's procedure for that hazard: a sharps container for needles, the product's safety data sheet for a chemical, and your local rules for battery disposal. Log what was found and who dealt with it.
• Identity documents and payment cards: treat as a separate category (see below).

Some jurisdictions set rules for how long an innkeeper must hold unclaimed property and what happens to it afterwards. Those rules vary, so have your local counsel or hotel association confirm the requirements before you finalize your periods.

For storage, use shelving by month, or number ranges, so a monthly sweep takes minutes. On the first working day of each month, the custodian pulls anything past its retention date. A weekly two-minute check that the locked cabinet is still locked is worth adding too.

Guest claims and shipping: verify, then release

Your policy should assume that someone will eventually claim an item that isn't theirs. Verification protects the guest who actually lost it as much as it protects you.

Verifying a claim

• Ask for a description before showing the item. The claimant should identify distinguishing features: lock screen image, case color, contents, engraving. Staff should never prompt them.
• Match to a stay. Confirm the claimant was in that room or area on that date. A lost report taken at the time helps here, so take one whenever a guest calls or emails, even before anything has been found.
• Require ID on pickup. Record the name and the ID type, not a photocopy of the document unless your privacy rules allow it.
• Have the claimant sign for it, and log the date, the staff member who released it, and the claim number.
• Third parties need authority. A colleague, driver or family member collects only with a written authorization from the guest and their own ID.

Shipping

Shipping is where goodwill is won, and where cost and liability can pile up if you're loose about it.

• The guest pays for shipping and, if they want it, insurance. Collect payment before the item goes out, by card over a secure method, not by email.
• Use a tracked service with signature for anything of value, and pick the carrier for the guest if they don't have a preference.
• Photograph the packed item and the label, and keep the tracking number in the log entry.
• Get written authorization to ship to a stated address. Don't ship to an address that differs from the guest's booking without extra verification.
• List what you don't ship. Common exclusions are medication, cash, weapons, perishables and original identity documents. Say who handles each case instead.

High-value items and identity documents: a separate track

Give these categories their own rules, because the risk profile is different.

High-value items (jewelry, laptops, cash, watches, anything you'd struggle to replace) should be:

1. Double-counted or described at intake by two staff, both initialing.
2. Locked in a safe or cabinet with restricted access, not the general lost property room.
3. Reported to the GM or duty manager the same day.
4. Released only by a manager, with ID and a signature.

Set a simple dollar threshold, at your own discretion, above which this track applies. When an attendant is unsure, the rule should be to treat it as high-value.

Identity documents and payment cards need a firm rule:

• Log them, seal them in an envelope, and lock them away the same shift.
• Contact the guest right away using booking details, and hold for a short defined period.
• If unclaimed, don't leave them in a drawer. Hand them to the appropriate authority, such as local police or the issuing body, and log who received them and when. Check locally which authority applies.
• Never ship an original passport or government ID casually. If a guest asks, escalate to the GM.

If you're carrying a lot of cash-adjacent or evidentiary items, such as found weapons or suspicious property, don't handle them as lost property. Call security or the police, and log who did what and when.

Disposal, donation and running it week to week

When the retention period ends, the last step is as important as the first, because it's where property vanishes without a record.

• Donation: clothing, books and usable items can go to a local charity. Have the custodian and a manager sign off on the list, and keep the charity's receipt with the log.
• Disposal: anything unusable is discarded, with a witness. Phones, tablets and laptops need more than that: they hold the guest's photos, messages and signed-in accounts, and removing the SIM card leaves all of it on the device. Don't try to wipe them yourself, since a locked device usually can't be reset without its passcode. Send them to a certified data-destruction or e-waste service that destroys the storage, keep its certificate with the log, and cut up SIM and memory cards separately.
• Never allow staff to keep items, including those about to be thrown out. It's the simplest rule in the policy and the one that most protects your team.
• Close every log entry with an outcome: returned, shipped, donated, discarded, or handed to police. An open entry with no outcome should be a flag on your monthly review.

Then review it monthly. The custodian brings the GM three numbers: items logged, items returned, and items disposed of. If returns are low, you probably have an intake or contact problem rather than a storage one.

Where this lives matters as much as the rules. If your team logs things on paper and claims come in by phone at the front desk, half the work is finding the entry. In Altoreva Ops, lost & found sits alongside the rest of the property's operations, with lost reports and possible matches, so the person taking a guest's call can check what's been found without walking to a back office. For properties that need stricter handling of held property, the optional Altoreva Security add-on includes an upgraded lost & found, evidence and held-property chain of custody, and retention and legal holds.

Whichever tool you use, test the policy once before you publish it. Hand a supervisor a dummy item, a fake claim and a shipping request, and see where they stall. Fix those points, then train the team.