Lost luggage

From the moment they step through the door your bookings become guests, and their experiences determine whether they ever come back.
A-two
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Lost luggage

Post by A-two »

How would you handle guests who arrive with only the clothes they stand up in having transferred directly from flights where the airline lost the luggage?
Waves from America
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

Presumably they'll get their luggage back at some stage? If they have a hire car they can get to a store to buy essentials? If they haven't got a hire car maybe you could drive them to somewhere where they could buy what they need? Or to a hire car outfit!! Lend them anything they can't immediately get :roll:
What a miserable start to a holiday but it happens ! :cry:
alexia s.
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Post by alexia s. »

This happened to our guests recently (with a variation). There really is little we can do, except advise them where to shop for cheap clothes (or expensive, if that is what they want). I did spend a lot of time on the phone trying to chase the luggage for them, but when it's lost, it's lost. The train left the station at Aix before they had taken all their luggage .......
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Alexia.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

alexia s. wrote:The train left the station at Aix before they had taken all their luggage .......
What a nightmare. That reminds me of my trip to Switzerland this year. I brilliantly left my laptop on the train, and with it all the information I need to lead my life. I thought the world had ended. I went to the ticket office and explained what I had done. The chap there got on the phone and 1 minute later told me not to worry, there was a train coming the other way in 8 minutes and my laptop would be on that. And it was. I wonder if there is another country in the world where this would have happened.
Paolo
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Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

Wow!! Let's hear it for Switzerland!! Amazing :lol:
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Sue Dyer
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Post by Sue Dyer »

I think it depends on how long your luggage is gone. Happened to Dave when he went to work in West Virginia, after a couple of days British Airways gave him $150 to buy essentials. They just need to keep on at the airline which is difficult as you're always on one of those automatic systems and hard to get thru.

My brother went to a meeting in Paris and his case didn't turn up, B.A gave him a pack with paper underpants in, razor and toothbrush!!!
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

Yes,we've always found BA good.They hired a courrier and delivered one set of lost luggage to us at 1 am after we had driven home from the airport.Another time the luggage was delivered back to us too.OK-so it shouldn't have gone AWOL in the first place,but at least we weren't inconvenienced for too long :?

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alexia s.
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Post by alexia s. »

"paper underpants"!!!!!! That's "good"????? I'd never fly BA again. (Unless this hapened pre WW2, of course)
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Alexia.
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

Oooh,er...just imagine if you got caught in a really bad downpour,or if you sat on a wet bench!!! :oops:
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

If you sat on a wet bench in your underwear? I think you'd have other problems then! ;)

I hope this never happens to us, but odds are that it will... that's why I love this forum. Now, when it does happen to a guest, I'll have a prepared response and I'll get credit for being very professional and prepared.

Even U.S. Airlines will return your luggage to you by courier wherever you are (if they've lost your luggage), so it should just be a matter of waiting. I've never heard of an airline giving you money or clothes before, though. Even paper underwear is better than -- what is it they say -- going commando.

Unless you get a papercut. Owwww.
Brooke
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Post by Guest3 »

Well this did happen to one of our guests that booked with us this Summer. She was the only one of the party whose luggage went astray. When she arrived she was in tears as most of her clothes/shoes for the holiday were brand new. We offered to drive her to the airport to collect her luggage when they found it, but the Customer Service people at Malaga Airport were excellent. They traced and found her suitcase (which accidently ended up in Las Palmas) and had it delivered to her the next day by courier. Luckily for her she managed to borrow some of her Sisters clothes until her luggage turned up.

In nearly 3 years of renting this is the first time we've had our guests luggage going astray. Not much you can do in this situation as we felt helpless. There was nothing immediate we could do the rectify the loss but to offer the use of our car to and from the airport. I also offered to take her to the local department store (Dunnes) to buy new clothes in case the luggage didn't turn up.
A-two
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Post by A-two »

Sorry, forgot to update everyone on what happened. Luckily they did have one of two suitcases with them when they arrived, and the one missing was delivered by courier by the airline 48 hours later.

Her main concern was her cosmetics, which she then remembered were in the case they had with them. Big Relief. Her next concern was her husbands underpants.

Had I been fully prepared for this, I would have been able to whip out my special list of local stores (with map) for cheap underwear, cosmetics, basic Ts, swimsuits, sweatshirts, shorts and jeans, but I only thought of making one in hindsight.

If I had been a better Brownie, I might even have produced a neutral face palette for her, the kind of make-up kit they sell on airlines, which has miniature lipsticks, blush, eye liner and shadow etc. As well, a brand new T shirt with the slogan "I'm only wearing this because the airline lost my luggage!"

As it was, I was completely unprepared, only managing to ask if there was anything I could perhaps lend her, then mentioning a few stores, which wasn't easy for her to grasp after a long haul flight and 1 1/2 hr drive. She was not interested in going anywhere further than she could throw. Close to the house was important, so a prepared list of the closest local stores available with map and arrows and pictures of clothes in the correct spots would have been perfect.

They had arrived together with adult daughters, spouses, and grandchildren so I was eying them all up to see whether they could probably borrow a few things, but she was a stick insect with daughters approached morbidly obese. Oh well, at least it wasn't the reverse!

I did make them smile about it though by taking them into the laundry room and saying that they didn't need to worry too much if the suitcase never arrived and they were going to spend all week in the same clothes, because we had a very good washing machine and dryer here... :)

They took it all in their stride and had a wonderful time anyway, but I think I will prepare one of those shopping lists over the winter, in case it happens again next year. It seems a small thing to do that would be very helpful.
Waves from America
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enid
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Post by enid »

I'm going to be working on a more detailed guide to local shops too - it was one of the comments on a feed back sheet. Although we do list where the nearest supermarkets etc are our guests felt that a bit more detail would have been helpful and it won't take me long to do - I hope!!!
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