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Warning: If you overnight your luggage, don’t forget to notify your hotel

May 29, 2008

Of all the creative ways of avoiding American Airlines’ controversial new checked-luggage fee, the most obvious is to ship your bag to your hotel. But here’s a tip the travel industry pundits have largely forgotten to include: make sure your hotel knows your plans.

Steve Hinton discovered that was a good idea when he FedExed his clothes from New Orleans to Cleveland recently. He called the hotel to find out if they would accept the package.

I gave them my name and arrival date, but I goofed up. The hotel has a policy of confirming a reservation before accepting delivery of a guest’s package. In my case, the hotel had two reservations for me — a canceled one (I made a date change) and a second reservation that was live and well. This hotel did not see the second reservation and refused the FedEx delivery.

The story has a happy ending, though. Two hours later, FedEx phoned Hinton to let him know it couldn’t deliver the parcel. He notified the hotel. “They were kind enough to go to the FedEx warehouse and pick up the package the day they refused the shipment,” he says.

Lesson learned?

I am in the future going to tape my hotel confirmation to the box and I will make sure that I clearly have a contact number on the box (my contact information was on the FedEx shipping label). Also, I will make sure that the hotel makes a note in my reservation that I will have a package arriving. And I’ll make sure that a package gets to the hotel two business days prior to my arrival. I’ll also make sure that I get e confirmations from FedEx to identify shipping and receiving issues.

Great idea.

On other thing that’s worth noting is that some hotels charge a fee for accepting packages on your behalf. So make sure you inquire about any such fees before putting your belongings in a FedEx or UPS box and sending it to your destination.

Happy shipping, everyone. It’s going to be an interesting summer.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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6 comments

  • Amy Bradley-Hole

    Thanks for this Chris — great tip.

    The more info you put on the shipping label for a package heading to a hotel, the better. These are things you must put on a label:

    Guest name, and the word GUEST written after it (I once worked for a hotel with over 2000 employees and nearly as many guests. Trying to figure out if addressee Joe Brown was an employee or an arriving guest was a chore.) Even better, if you know the arrival date of the package, write either IN-HOUSE GUEST or ARRIVING GUEST.

    Arrival date

    Confirmation number

    Contact details

    Group or function name, if applicable

    All of this should be written CLEARLY in more than one place on the shipping label/box. Hinton’s future shipping plans are excellent and cover all bases.

    P.S. I think hotels charging for guests to receive packages is just stupid.

  • http://claystorm.livejournal.com Kevin Muray

    I still can not see shipping my stuff via UPS / FEDEX / DHL cus more times then not, even for ground shipping, its going to cost more then the 30 dollar roundtip bag fee on American Airlines.

    Now yes, the shipping companys do a lot better job at keeping track of your baggage then airlines seem to, but overall, even with the charge, I think its going to be better to just keep checking your bags.

  • Laura

    We just came back from Japan, where doing this sort of thing (“takkyubin”) is very common and cheap. We were able to send our big bag from Kyoto to Tokyo for around $13, and then between Tokyo hotels when we were taking a brief 2-day excursion to the north for $10. With two kids in tow, it was bliss to be able to travel with just small backpacks. You could send the suitcases from almost any hotel or convenience store, and no hotel had any problem holding the bags. I wonder if the increase in checked bag fees will eventually inspire someone to create this sort of specialized service (or make it a special division of FedEx, UPS, etc.) in the US.

  • Chad Davidson

    I have been shipping my luggage to hotels for the last several years. At first I started like Steve using Fed Ex and UPS, but I have found a few companies that specialize in the luggage delivery service. After testing the waters with a couple of them, I have become a loyal customer of Luggage Forward (www.luggageforward.com). Whether I have been traveling for business or pleasure I use the service all the time. No more hassles of waiting at the baggage claim or worrying about the airlines loosing my golf clubs.

  • BriCo

    Before everyone gets too excited about using shippers rather than airlines for luggage, keep in mind that despite Laura’s cheap fees in Japan, the U.S. fees will not be anywhere near that inexpensive, compared to an airline’s$30 R/T. And if you naively believe those shippers don’t lose or delay shipments, think again. I once shipped via FedEx paying extra for ‘Next Morning’ delivery, and the package arrived the 2nd day. Their response (with NO refund) even after I quoted them their advertised TV clip (“if it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight”): “we don’t guarantee delivery day or time”.

  • http://gadgetduck.com I Goldman

    What is the name of the hotel that fixed its mistake? I would have, at most, expected a “Sorry.” Instead, the hotel did what was right. Kudos.

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