Are You kidding Me? 2

Last October 16, the trolley that I left in the storage room of the Lindner hotel in Antwerp disappeared, it was first believed that the suitcase had been given to another customer by mistake.



Last week as I was fed up of waiting for the hotel to actually start looking for my suitcase, I went to see the hotel manager. This country seems to bring nothing but bad luck to me, the manager had gone on holyday the exact day I wanted to see him and he was returning 10 days later. I sat down with his assistant to talk about my trolley and I learned that the suitcase that was staying in the storage room belonged to a frequent hotel customer who wanted to travel light. Just like that I learned that my suitcase had been stolen from the storage room of the hotel (locked with a magnetic key) and not given to another hotel customer; if I hadn’t asked the hotel would probably not have told me. When I explain how the hotel should operate to find the thief, I just get an understanding smile from the manager. The hotel as no surveillance system but to video cameras are located on the side of the hotel entrance, one would just have to look at the video to see at what time the thief left the hotel with my trolley and crosscheck with the checkout of the hotel customers to know who stole my suitcase. But we can’t look at the surveillance video! But we can’t browse the checkout logs! But we can’t call all our clients! Once again I am faced with a total lack of will to find my suitcase. I leave telling her to contact the manager’s boss to find a solution and again she is not convinced with my idea.



On Thursday as I am going to have breakfast, I get stopped by a hotel employee who tells me that everything is settled and the assistant will explain it to me when she gets to the hotel. I stay calm and go enjoy my breakfast. When she arrived, she explained that she called the regional manager and he agreed to pay the amount that was on the bill I gave them. I told her that I wrote the bill to give them an idea of the money I would have to spend to buy back my things and to replace my door lock; I expected them to pay for everything and not just a part of it. The hotel was willing to pay for what was on the bill but nothing more, the assistant said that the hotel didn’t have to pay me any money because it was written on the storage room receipt that the hotel was not liable for anything happening to what was left there. I told the assistant that If I had made a more expensive bill (like my wife told me to) the hotel would have spent much more money, she answered that people are honest in Belgium. Amazing, they are willing to pay some of my expenses but not all of them! As I leave, I explain to her that I want a full refund and I am willing to go to court to have all my money back if necessary. As always she just nodded.



I went to the police station to declare the theft, as I was giving details the policeman explained that going to court would only waste my time and money as the case would not go anywhere. I finally accepted the hotels offer because my insurance company told me that hotels never pay anything when suitcases are lost in cases such as mine. The new lock cost 1000€, thank you very much Lindner hotel!