Hotel Luggage Storage - be careful.
How often do you find you need to leave your luggage in the hotel storage room? Maybe you have to check out early and your flight isn't until later that night, and you think that spending the day somewhere other than the hotel lobby would be a good option. Staying at the SHERATON FOUR POINTS, MIAMI, in January 2007 on our way from Australia to South America and Antarctica, we did just that, trusting the Sheraton without a second thought. Bad move, we discovered. The hotel porter gave, YES GAVE, my husband's bag away to someone else, and when we came to collect it, with the baggage receipt in hand, it was gone. Of course we had to leave to catch our flight to Peru and were promised faithfully that the hotel manager would contact us, however this was not to be. Fortunately we had the foresight to get a signed statement from the porter on duty that one of our bags was missing, and found out a few days later that the video security cameras showed footage of our bag being taken out of the hotel. We did as the porter had advised us and when we reached Santiago five days later, managed to purchase what my husband needed to continue our trip, believing that the hotel would compensate us. Two days into a four week holiday, and the only clothes my husband had was what he was wearing!

Now that wasn't as easy as it sounds. Recall I said we were on our way to Antarctica, so we had packed thermal gear, boots etc, which we now had to find in the middle of the American summer! Add to that the fact that most of the clothes and shoes in his bag were very good brands and near new, and we had also lost a digital camera and video camera charger, along with important medications. What price can you put on your holiday time spent shopping, not to mention the stress of this whole fiasco!

Arriving home in February we submitted our claim for around A$3000 with a list of the contents and all receipts to the SHERATON FOUR POINTS (which we had now discovered is owned by Starwood Hotel Group), who after considerable delay deigned to send it on to their insurance company. More delays, and then we were offered US$500! "Just sign the statutory declaration that you won't fight this any more, and we'll send the check" they said. Why such a small amount ... that didn't even cover the digital camera! Well, AND HERE'S A WARNING FOR EVERYBODY, Florida law says that US$500 is the maximum payout for luggage missing at the fault of the hotel UNLESS YOU SUBMIT AN INVENTORY OF THE BAG'S CONTENTS WHEN YOU CHECK YOUR BAG INTO THE HOTEL'S STORAGE. Now anyone who has ever done that, please tell me!

We received the check for US$500 last week ... it's now August 2007.

Be advised SHERATON HOTELS that we will NEVER stay with you again, and we will tell this story to as many people as possible.

Learn more about this author, Lynn Mcdonald.
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