Ever left cases at hotel reception on the last day of your holiday? This couple’s story will make you think twice

YOU have to check out of your hotel in the morning but your flight is later in the evening so what do you do with your luggage?

It’s a holiday dilemma most of us have been faced with at one time or another.

The obvious solution is to leave your suitcases at the hotel reception and millions of travellers do just that every year.

But one couple’s horror story will make you think again.

Ann and Paul Arrowsmith, from Staffordshire, found themselves with time to kill on the last day of a luxury holiday in a five star hotel in Turkey.

As they were flying out in the afternoon, they decided to check out in the morning and enjoy a full morning by the pool so they asked the hotel staff where they could leave their luggage.

Ann recently told Rip Off Britain: “They said it was absolutely fine to leave them to the left of the reception desk and they told me ‘The bellboy will organise the cases and make sure they go on the right coach.’”

But when the couple returned to pick up their cases, all three were gone.

The couple’s Thomson holiday rep called all the reps from other companies in case they had ended up on the wrong coach, but to no avail.

Ann, Paula and son Tyler were forced to travel home in their wet clothes.

Ann revealed: “I was wearing a bikini that was wet and a sarong dress over the top that was see-through. My son and husband were both in their swim shorts and T-shirts.”

But worse was to come when the couple discovered that the three lost cases – and contents worth £3,000 – was NOT covered by their holiday insurance.

After putting in a lost luggage claim they were told they wouldn’t get a penny because they had left their luggage “unattended.”

A clause in the policy said that lost luggage is not covered when not in the care of an “authorised person”.

The home insurance also contained a similar clause, so the couple were seriously out of pocket.

Caroline Wayman of the Financial Ombudsman Service confirmed that leaving luggage at a hotel reception means you would be unlikely to be covered by insurance.

She said: “It would be unusual for an insurance policy to pay out in those circumstances.”

She added: “It’s important you look at your own policy to see what it says.

“If you are offered a locked room, ideally with a ticket, and you know that someone is going to be there then that’s obviously much better.”