Real life MMD: Do I punish the cleaner?

A question about : Real life MMD: Do I punish the cleaner?

This is a real life MMD so please bear in mind the MoneySaver in question will read your responses:

Please give this MoneySaver the benefit of your advice...

Do I punish the cleaner?

While staying in a hotel in Istanbul, I came back one evening to find my entire toiletries bag, worth c.Ј200, missing. The manager said the cleaner had mistaken it for rubbish as I'd wrapped it in plastic bags to avoid leakage.

They said they'd reimburse me but take the cost out her girl's wages. I don't want to pay to replace the toiletries, but feel guilty she'll lose a massive amount of her wages.

ML note - sadly for those who will suggest 'claim on your travel insurance' it's unlikely travel insurance is a solution (or a full solution) due to the excess needed.

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Best answers:

• I wonder if they actually have the right to dock her that much (it would be a lot compared to her wage) or if they are trying it on to dissuade you from claiming. I don't believe it would be ethical behaviour from the hotel.
  I can't answer the dilemma but I am sure we can all take note to be careful about putting things away out of sight in future. I personally tend to use the "do not disturb" or "do not clean room" signs (if I remember) as I don't even want my things tidying away from where I left them on the bed.
  If this was a major hotel chain (which I doubt) I would encourage the person to name and shame for unfair treatment of an employee. There does not seem to be any genuine suspicion of theft or dishonesty on her part.
• Ј200 quids worth of toiletries, the whole lot in mine would prob be les than Ј20
• Ј200 is a night out for me, but a month of wages for the girl.
  Everyone makes mistakes, I'd forget all about it.
• My daughter recently went travelling in Thailand and when she was staying in Koh Samui ( in a fairly nice hotel ) one of the others on the trip said one of her dresses was missing. So when my daughter got back to her room she unpacked her rucksack completely and found her favourite t-shirt, a silver necklace and a bracelet she had bought me for a present were missing. She searched the room and found them hidden at the back of a drawer. The other girl found her dress hidden in the same way. So in the morning she told the tour guide who told the hotel manager. He then brought the maid to the room and asked if my daughter if she wanted her sacked. She replied no as she did not actually lose anything and she hoped the maid would learn not to do it again. So I would either claim on the insurance or not take so much expensive make up on holiday again
• I'd be a little concerned that she 'conveniently' thought of it as being rubbish.
  Could she not tell when she lifted the bag that the containers werent empty?
  I would be a little dubious and would have maybe asked a few other guests at the time if anything of theirs had also been removed/thrown away in error.
  They could use this excuse all of the time....saying that though, that is a massive amount of money to the girl and personally I couldnt live with knowing she'd been sacked/ money taken from her wages and would rather just learn from my mistake for next time!
  I'd def' note it down though on any travel review sites for people to be mindful in future just incase there is some sort of a scam going on!
• Fraid so.
  Sometimes one has to learn the hard way.
  Who chooses to decide someone elses property is rubbish?
  Sounds a bit like a scam.
• Can you afford to lose the money? Obviously nobody likes to throw Ј200 away but there have got to be bits and pieces that you wanted to replace anyway. You could use this as a money saving opportunity and see if you can spend say Ј100 less when you replace the stuff.
  A very cynical view of the world - lots of people would no doubt just take the money regardless of the effects on others, they're not going to be as considerate as you. With this in mind the maid probably wouldn't risk losing wages by stealing stuff - especially toiletries which must have little or no resale value! Therefore she is likely telling the truth, in which case it would seem unfair to charge her for an accident.
  Rubbish hotel - what they propose is totally unethical and really if they do have that practice they shouldn't tell you - I think there's got to be some guilt trip mixed up there...standard hotel room has to cost what, Ј30-40 a night...they'll make the money back in a week!
  Potentially highly pointless and useless suggestions, take or leave :-)
• Ј200 worth of toiletries? i take stuff i can dump after and have more space to bring goodies back so i think just accept the loss and take cheap stuff next time!
• Personally, considering how much of an impact (presumably) losing Ј200 would have on the cleaner, and considering that I (though not happy to lose Ј200) could relatively easily recover from this, I would not take the money. It would be a totally different story, however, if the cleaner had purposely stolen the bag! (I know that that is a possibility, but I'll take their claim that it was an honest mistake at face value.) But every mishap has a lesson: maybe taking less-expensive toiletries on holiday (eg Superdrug own brand stuff is really nice, and very cheap, and much of it is even cruelty-free); or buying a travel-bottle set and decanting your normal toiletries into smaller bottles. For things like cosmetics, I find it false economy to buy cheaper stuff, in which case I would try to take less of it with me on hols. Thanks for your post, I can learn lessons from this - I'm really sorry it happened to you. Holidays are a prime time for things of all sorts to go missing....
• I wonder? Was there any attempt made to rescue the make-up bag from the bins? Was it really 'thrown out' or did she steal it, and come up with an excuse when caught? Yes, I would most certainly get my money back for it. It's the Hotel's job to train this person to work effectively, so she should be the one to take it up with the hotel if she is unhappy to have them deduct the cost from her wages. How many more things might she throw away if she's not taught to be carefull? You go for it girl, get your money. You'll be doing future guests a favour.
• Ј200's a lot, but (I've never stayed in a hotel, so don't know what happens) I'd have thought "if it isn't in the bin, it's not rubbish" and even so if I were a cleaner then I'd still be wary that things might have fallen into the bin.
  Cleaner's probably a bit dodgy... although it does depend how "scruffy" the package appeared and how oddly placed it might have been. I'd have thought it's weight would have indicated it's not empty/rubbish and as a cleaner I'd have erred on the side of caution.
  Offer to go halves, for a compromise. Dodgy cleaner's still got away with it though ... for Ј200 I'd expect the hotel manager to pick through the bin bags with his teeth looking for it.
• Someone picked a carrier bag with Ј200 worth of stuff in it and binned it because they thought it was rubbish?
  What a joke!
  For a start, I'm assuming none of the bottle and containers were empty, so the weight of the bag should have been a give away that there were things in it!
  And why 'bin' it anyway. The bag should have been left on the side somewhere for the guest to dispose of if that's what they wanted to do.
  If if had been binned, why didn't they make the cleaner go and search through the bins?
  I'd want the money back, and I wouldn't care if it came out of her wages ~ she should have kept her mucky hands to herself.
  Sounds like a con job to me!
• No, I would not insist on the cleaner reimbursing me - she'll be lucky if she earns that in a month and the hotel management are being very unprofessional if they have put that suggestion forward - it is not for the guest to decide how to deal with staff.
  I any case I would never take that value of toiletries on holiday.
  Having said that I would never stay at that hotel again and I would warn my friends about what happened, and would probably also post on tripadvisor.
  In my view the fault lies with the hotel and its lack of training and/or supervision of its staff.
• I'm inclined to think if you can afford to have Ј200 pounds worth of toiletries then you can afford to lose them! But also, I would consider the fact that Ј200 is likely to be that woman's earnings for months, and as it's impossible to tell whether the hotel are just trying to put you off I wouldn't risk leaving her up the creek!
  When I was on living in Thailand I left my wallet at a bus stop with a months salary in it (being paid cash has it's downsides!) and although it was irritating that I got the wallet back minus the money I just hoped that whoever took it needed it/enjoyed it/spent it one something fun! Life's too short to worry about things like that!
• For a start off your on holiday so circa Ј200 is excessive for just toiletries
  OK the main point is that the cleaner/maid should NOT have thrown anything away apart from obvious rubbish (such as old tissues etc) anything else should be left as it is.
  So lesson 1, if you take something valuable on holiday put it in the safe, if you can afford to lose it leave it out
• firstly if i had spent Ј200 on toileteries i would not expect them to leak, id maybe keep them in a bag which is obviously for toileteries, one of those with the waterproof lining, padded things ?
  my holiday toileteries consist of deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo, soap and a scrunchy, razors ? maybe about Ј25 max
  the cleaner was just doing her job, it should be the company held responsible