Hotel negligence liability

Mary C

New Member
Jurisdiction
Minnesota
My husband and I recently stayed at a hotel with our 5month old daughter.we checked in the first day and stayed with no more major complaints except the place was run down and the staff looked a little shady. The next day something came up and we ended up staying over an extra day at the hotel. My husband went down and payed got his receipt and keys renewed, we went on about our day and returned to our room later that evening to find everything except my daughters portable crib had been removed from our hotel room! We immediately called the front desk the lady working told us that that there had been a mixup and housekeeping had us down as a checking-out and that she would get our things and bring them back to our room. 30mins went by so my husband walked down to the lobby to see what the hold up was because our child needed some of the contents of her bag.. he was told that they weren't sure where our things had been Stored and again that she would bring our things up to our room. After another hour passed I went back down stairs and ask if the lady would please contact the housekeeper who had cleared our room out and ask where our things were. I over heard her talking to the maid in the back office and exclaim "you're not supposed to do that." I demanded to know what had been done with my things and was told nothing but that she needed to speak with her manager and she would call my room. We were very upset by now but we waited another hour before calling the front desk and being told the maid had only been with them for 2weeks and she did not know that she was supposed to bring left behind items to the office and that unfortunately our belongings were lost but they were in the process of getting to the bottom of it. My husband walked out to our car to use his cell and happened to catch them pulling the bag belonging to our baby out of the garbage receptacle! Long story short I obviously could not use those items any longer, some of my belongings were given back after a security video showed house keeper leaving with a bag full of our stuff but the rest was never given back! What can I do?
 
You can file a report with proper law enforcement agency.
It would appear some of that activity might have been caught by the motel's security cameras.

If you get no satisfaction, your other option is to file a small claims court case against the motel owner, motel manager, shift manager, housekeeping manager, and the maid that you allege committed the theft.
 
You can file a report with proper law enforcement agency.
It would appear some of that activity might have been caught by the motel's security cameras.

If you get no satisfaction, your other option is to file a small claims court case against the motel owner, motel manager, shift manager, housekeeping manager, and the maid that you allege committed the theft.

Thank-you for your help! I was hesitant to call the police because I know that There are laws to protect the hotel from responsibility for lost or stolen items, thing is I know I don't have anyway to prove the contents of my makeup bag (it was expensive) or that it even existed really! Had she not returned the items she did admit she took I wouldn't have been able to prove anything! I do feel like in the case of the baby items they returned from the trash I should have a legitimate claim for them at least to be replaced but I wanted to tread lightly because I thought they might return the stolen item if I was nice. I guess what I'm asking is if I can't do anything about my stolen property can they at least by law be held responsible for the items they returned from the trash because of the staffs negligence
 
The laws protect the owner from theft of guests property but not theft or negligence of his employees.

Call the police and report the theft.

Sue for any monetary damages you might have (and can prove).
 
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