Guest Lost and Found for Orlando Short-Term Rentals

When a cleaning crew finds something a guest left behind in an Orlando rental, it gets bagged, labeled with the unit and turn date, and reported to the host or property manager before the next guest ever checks in. Medication or anything sensitive gets flagged immediately, regardless of the day's schedule.

What happens when a cleaning crew finds something a guest left behind?

Every item gets bagged and labeled with the unit and the date of that turn — not dropped into one shared lost-and-found bin with a dozen other units' items mixed in, which is how a phone charger becomes unclaimable. Anything unclear or valuable gets photographed before it goes in the bag, and it's reported to the host or property manager before the next guest ever checks in, so there's still time to reach the guest before they've left the state.

Obvious trash — a half-eaten granola bar, an empty water bottle — gets tossed the way it would during any other turn. Everything else gets logged. The line between the two isn't always obvious in the moment, and erring toward logging it is the safer call, every time.

What actually turns up most in an Orlando rental?

Orlando's short-term rentals mostly host people on tight, single-trip schedules — a few days built around a specific plan, packed and unpacked in a hurry on both ends. That pace is what fills the lost-and-found pile: a phone charger left in the outlet behind the nightstand, sunglasses pushed under a pillow, a kid's stuffed animal wedged in the couch cushions, a ring or a watch set down on the bathroom counter and forgotten in the rush to make a checkout time.

None of it is usually expensive on its own, which is part of why it gets left behind — a phone charger or a pair of drugstore sunglasses isn't worth turning the car around for, so it sits in a drawer or under a cushion until the next guest finds it instead.

How long should a host hold onto it before letting it go?

Long enough to give the guest a realistic chance to notice it's gone and reach out. A phone charger is usually noticed within a day or two, once someone's back in a hotel room or at home reaching for an outlet that isn't there. How long to hold it after that is more a judgment call than a fixed rule — the item's value, how easy it is to identify, and whether it's the kind of thing a guest is actually likely to call about all matter more than a date on a calendar.

What about something sensitive — medication, a passport, cash?

Those don't wait for the normal report cycle. A pill bottle doesn't get opened or inventoried item by item — it gets photographed as found, noted, and the host gets a message within the hour, not batched in with the rest of the turn notes. If a guest needs a prescription refilled before a flight home, an extra day of delay is the difference that matters to them.

That urgency doesn't bend around the schedule. Orlando STR Cleaning is closed Monday and Tuesday, and Sunday hours end at 3:30 PM — a phone charger found outside those hours waits for the next open day, but medication or anything that looks like an ID or a passport gets a message sent regardless of whether we're technically open.

Who actually pays to ship it back?

That's between the host and the guest, not something a cleaning crew decides — but the common pattern is the guest covers postage once the host has confirmed what was found and where to send it. Some hosts only offer local pickup for anything too large for a padded envelope; shipping a full-size item across state lines gets expensive fast, and that cost has to land on someone.

Does a phone cable really get logged, or does that count as trash?

It gets logged. A charger cable looks disposable right up until it's the one item a guest calls about the next morning, panicked about a flight home with a dead phone. The rule of thumb is simple: if it's not obviously food waste or packaging, it goes in the bag with a label, not the trash can.

How does a host find out if something's being held for them?

Through the report that goes out after the turn — unit, date, and what was found, sent to whoever's on file as the host or property manager. Call (689) 220-6567 and reference the unit and the approximate turn date if nothing's come through yet; if the crew found something during that clean, it's already logged and waiting on an answer.

Will you throw away half-used toiletries or food you find?

Food and anything opened and perishable, yes — that gets tossed like any other turn. Unopened or personal items that look intentionally packed get logged with everything else instead of assumed to be trash.

Can a guest contact you directly about something they lost?

Generally no — we coordinate with the host or property manager on file, since they're the ones who can confirm the unit and dates. A guest should reach out to whoever they booked through first.