Quick travel tip: Look before you go!

a blue pajamas with white clouds on it

Don't forget your jammies!!

On two out of my last three trips I have gotten verrrry lucky.

First, two weeks ago. I was ready to go, feeling good because I was leaving a bit early for once, and took one last look around my hotel room. Satisfied I had gotten everything, I grabbed my bags and walked down the long hallway to the elevator. I walked out of the elevator on the ground floor, going through my mental checklist once more, and realized I didn’t remember packing my PJs. I paused, thinking it through. Drat! They were in the bathroom. Even though it was a little embarrassing to go to the front desk and explain I had left my PJS upstairs, and since I had also left the keys on the desk I had to get a new one, I was very glad that I remembered while I was still at the hotel and easily able to get my stuff.

Today, I enjoyed a delicious lunch before heading to the airport. I paid the bill, and double checked to make sure I had gotten the receipt and my credit card out of the folder. Because I had an hour drive, I hit the ladies’ room before leaving. As I walked out, my waitress ran over to me. “Ma’am! Your credit card!!” Which evidently I had left in the folder, despite double checking it.

So what’s the deal? In both instances, I gave a cursory check and then  moved on, but didn’t actually search. Two weeks ago, I looked around my hotel room and poked my head in the restroom, but didn’t actually look behind the door. Which was a bummer, because that’s where my jammies had fallen. Today, I didn’t check under the restaurant’s copy of the receipt, which was where my credit card was. I think I’ve been so busy lately that I’m just running from one thing to the next, and not taking the time to fully complete things. It could also be possible that I’ve been traveling for so long that I’ve gotten complacent. Either way, you can be darn sure I will be double and triple checking for my stuff from here on out!!

Readers, have you ever forgotten anything at a hotel?

Comments

  1. Good post. The one item I am compulsively checking and rechecking is my Driver’s License (or passport when traveling internationally). I have this irrational fear of showing up at security without my ID and being placed in TSA jail for the remainder of my days. And since I can’t even rent a car without a DL, I figured I would be toast. I must check my wallet hourly when I am traveling.

  2. Tons of times – more than I can count (among them cash in the safe, countless toothbrushes, purchases that I forgot I had made), but the worst was leaving my passport in the limo (yep, I was stylin’ on that trip!) and not realizing until I made it to check-in. Luckily, the driver saw it and was already making the loop back to by the time I called. The free bottle of champagne provided probably didn’t help me much…

  3. I left a brand new bottle of cologne in a room, than two weeks later left my amenity kit hanging behind the bathroom door. Now I check and double check, even opening drawers I never used.

  4. I can’t recall leaving anything in a hotel room, but in 2003 I left my Palm Pilot on the Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo. About 2 weeks later it arrived in the mail with an apology for turning it on to get my name and address.

  5. I hate to say it, but your little darling probably stole some of your brain cells in the making of her. Ask me how I know…..six kids/5 pregnancies and I am forever leaving things behind, putting things in weird places and obsessing over where my important stuff is.

  6. I have left my phone charger countless times and last week was a ‘first’ – I left my eyeglasses šŸ™ Sometimes, I’ve gotten lucky and the hotel has even returned/shipped items to me. But not this time!

  7. Amy said it. It’s the mini warrior that’s done it to you. That said, I NEVER put anything in hotel room drawers – I have strict rules about where I will put things in hotels, and other than hanging clothes, it is always in very visible places – suitcase, top of desk/dresser, top of bathroom counter. I try to hold my wallet in my hand while my credit card is out – I don’t put it down and I don’t put it back in my wallet until that credit card is back with me. The worst for me is airport check-in though – I hate having to have my license out. After check-in, it’s a pain getting the license back in the wallet AND getting ready to go through security. I haven’t come up with a good system for that yet.

  8. It must be kids in general. I dated a guy with kids and he left something in every hotel we stayed in. I was always calling in and asking for the hotel to mail stuff back to him.

  9. I’ve left behind two nice rain jackets in a hotel room. After a week of solid rain and a cheap drug store rain jacket that doesn’t work, I’ve decided to buy two new jackets. One to travel and one to keep at home.

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