Harry Potter’s Wand, A Micro Pig, Breast Implants, A Bucket of Live Crabs, A Diamond encrusted iPhone, A Script for a TV Soap Opera and A Python Make the 2012 Travelodge List Of Bizarre Left Behinds
Books on Female First
Where would you find the original Harry Potter’s wand, a micro pig, breast implants, a bucket of live crabs, a diamond encrusted iPhone, a script for a well known soap opera and a python - where else but Travelodge’s lost and found office!
Today, the UK’s very first budget hotel chain, Travelodge announced the mysterious objects left behind in its 527 hotels during 2012. With over 13 million people staying with Travelodge each year some of the booty left behind also includes:
· A winning EuroMillions ticket
· Keys to a Bugatti
· A stamp album worth a quarter of a million pounds
· A box of 200 Queen Elizabeth masks
· A valuable set of Olympic tickets
· A trunk of chocolate bars
· A diamond encrusted wedding ring
· A Persian Chinchilla kitten worth £600
· A suitcase of vinyl records
· A set of false teeth with diamonds
· A Rolex watch worth £50,000
· A tiffany engagement ring
· A pilot’s training manual
· A Kenwood Magimix worth £600
· Joseph’s Dream Coat
· Pantomime Horse
· 7,000 copies of Fifty Shades of Grey
· 76,500 teddy bears
Shakila Ahmed, Travelodge spokeswoman said: “Each year our lost and found departments provide plenty of revelations. From keys to a Bugatti, Harry Potter’s original wand, a micro pig, breast implants to a script from a well know British soap programme, our customers’ left behinds demonstrate what a cross section of people stay in our 527hotels.
“What is becoming evident after speaking to customers is that the pace of life has become so fast and we are so eager to get from A to B that priceless processions are easily being forgotten.”
Travelodge has also reported that during the last 12 months, over 20,000books have been left behind in 38,000 of its hotel rooms; 7,000 of which were Fifty Shades of Grey as fictitious trilogies became the most popular reads to be left behind in 2012.
E.L. James’ ‘Fifty Shades’, Suzanne Collins’ ‘Hunger Games’ and Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millennium’ trilogies were the most popular.
Shakila Ahmed commented: “It is interesting to see for the first time ever that
the most popular books to be left behind in our hotels during the last 12 months have predominately been trilogies and not celebrity biographies and chick lit book like previous years. It looks like we are a nation addicted to trilogies, this is probably so that we can flee the reality of doom and gloom for a world of fantasy.”
Listed below are the top ten most discarded books left in Travelodge hotels during 2012:
1. Fifty Shades of Grey E.L. James
2. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson
3. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest Stieg Larsson
4. Fifty Shades Freed E.L. James
5. The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins
6. The Girl Who Played With Fire Stieg Larsson
7. Fifty Shades Darker E.L. James
8. Catching Fire Suzanne Collins
9. Mockingjay Suzanne Collins
10. The Help Kathryn Stockett
Listed in the table below are the most bizarre items left behind at Travelodge hotels during 2012:
The top ten most popular items left behind in Travelodge’s 500 hotels in 2012 are:
- Phone / laptop chargers
- Pyjamas / clothes
- Teddy bears
- Toiletry bags with contents
- Books
- Laptops / iPads / kindles
- Satnavs
- Mobile phones
- Electric toothbrushes
- Bags / suitcases
In the last 12 months Travelodge staff has reunited 76,500 forgotten cuddly bears with their owners.
Since January 2012 all items left behind at Travelodge hotels that have not been claimed within three months have been donated to Cancer Research UK charity shops across the UK.