The unbelievable things some guests leave in hotel rooms

In hotels, it’s common for guests who are slightly distracted or pressed for time when packing up to leave unintended souvenirs for staff in their room.

A charger left plugged in next to the nightstand, for example, or a piece of clothing tangled in the bedclothes. But some guests are capable of forgetting more unusual items.

The British hotel chain Travelodge recently published a list of the most surprising things forgotten in 2022 in its 580 hotels. And the list doesn’t just feature inanimate objects!

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In fact, some guests go as far as to forget their pets. It has even happened to famous people.

Once, the singer Jennifer Lopez and the actor Ben Affleck left their hotel separately, only to realize that they had left their two Japanese Spaniels behind, each one thinking that the other had taken the dogs!

But other guests beat the star couple in terms of forgetfulness, with some managing to forget a pair of donkeys (named Daisy and Duke) at the Travelodge Poole North hotel, even though they had just bought them. The new owners obviously had other things on their minds!

While animals are obviously quite exceptional finds, some surprising objects have also turned up. Indeed, Travelodge hotel employees probably didn’t expect to find a life-size cutout of the German soccer manager Jürgen Klopp, the keys to a Sunseeker Hawk 38 motorboat or a Santa’s sleigh full of gifts…

Another interesting thing about this highly improbable inventory is that some of the items left behind have a decidedly patriotic nature.

Travelodge staff found an impressive number of Union Jack flags, for example, a wedding cake in the colours of Liverpool soccer club, as well as a scrapbook of the life of Queen Elizabeth II (which the client even made a return trip to retrieve). An oil painting of the late Queen was even treated to its own room at the Travelodge Hotel in Windsor, only to be forgotten by its owner upon departure.

And if you’re wondering what happens to these forgotten items, Travelodge says that their fate depends primarily on their owner, who has three months within which to collect them. After this time, the relics are all donated to local thrift stores operated by the British Heart Foundation charity.