Chargerback.com Makes Process of Finding and Claiming Lost Hotel Items Easier

For those travelers who in their hast forgot a mobile phone or a briefcase and for families, who on their vacation forgot luggage or keys, the site Chargerback.com is for you.

The site, which launched Tuesday, according to USA Today, "automates the lost-and-found process for participating hotels. Although hotels have entered the digital age in countless ways, they still typically have employees manually log items left behind by guests, then wait for the guests to contact them."

As for how the website actual works, it is very simple. After a hotel employee types in some information about the item, for example, what it is and where it is located, the guest that lost the item can log onto the site and enter his or her own description of the lost item. If there is a match, the guest is contacted.

At that point it is up to the guest, he or she can either pick up the item or pay a fee to have it shipped. Chargerback automatically generates a prepaid shipping label that hotel staff can use on boxes.

"We've really streamlined the process a lot," says Ranson Webster, chief executive officer of Chargerback, according to USA Today.

So far, it appears, even in a short period of being online, to be working, "more than 30 U.S. properties are using Chargerback, including Las Vegas-based Treasure Island, New York-New York and The Riviera. The hotels pay nothing. Guests incur a fee, which is embedded in the shipping price. The average a guest spends to have an item shipped is $10 to $12.50, Webster said to USA Today.

Adding, "hotels are really interested in getting an item back to the rightful owner. That's part of building brand loyalty."

Jean-Pierre Patay, hotel director of the 1,710-room Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, has been using Chargerback for almost two years in beta form. He said "at any given time, there were hundreds of lost items stored in multiple rooms, "where we could find a little space here and a little space there," according to USA Today.

As for the most popular items:

"Stuffed animals, blankets, jewelry, electronics and dentures. Hotel employees kept a catalog of the items, but when guests called to retrieve items, there was no easy way to locate them. Guests would often have to make multiple calls," he said, but now, that has all changed.