THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE I 39 The Review ➔ Lost in vacation
Neglected hamsters, Alan Sugar, toilet troubles and machine guns – welcome to The Business Travel Magazine's Alternative News
TRAVELODGE is back in its rightful place this issue, earning itself prime position on this page with news of its bulging lost property cupboard. Among the weird and wonderful
items left behind at its 496 hotels across the country in 2011 were a
Mr Blobby costume, a 4ft stuffed Macaw, a 3ft Olympic-style torch, a Vera Wang wedding dress and a hamster called Fredrick. Other unusual items discovered
by staff included a suitcase of vintage Marvel comics, a rare
Toby jug valued at £3,000, a magician’s box of tricks, a collection of designer dog clothing, a box of Duchess of Cambridge masks and an urn complete with ashes. Perhaps most alarmingly, one couple managed to temporarily forget their 18-month baby boy, each parent thinking the other had put him in the car seat. What is believed to be the most valuable lost property from last year was found at the London Bank Travelodge, where the keys to a Ferrari were left behind along with a box of seven watches – by Tag Heuer, Omega, Chanel and Rolex – valued at over £50,000. Jon Hendry Pickup, operations director at Travelodge, says, “Each year our lost and found box gets filled with some remarkable items. It just goes to show the amazing cross section of people that stay at our hotels.” The top ten items most frequently left behind in 2011 were, in descending order, phone and laptop chargers, a variety of clothes, teddy bears, toiletries, books, laptops, satnav systems, mobile phones, electric tooth- brushes and suitcases.
A GRAND EFFORT
THE travel team at HSBC UK has raised over £1,500 for the Rainbow Trust by auctioning off corporate gifts donated to them in the run up to Christmas. Donations from staff came to over twice the sum raised the previous year, with EMEA travel and fleet manager, Lee Whiteing, paying tribute to his assistant Fay Gallagher for orchestrating the fund-raising efforts.
AN EXPENSIVE PAIN IN THE BUM
’’DON'T be caught short – diarrhoea claims top £23,000’’ – that’s the title of a press release that recently dropped into our inbox here at TBTM headquarters. Naturally it caught our attention, not least because we know how expensive a trip to the toilet can be having recently splashed out 30p to use the lavs at Victoria station. Unfortunately our company travel policy is not clear on such expense claims, but the gist of the aforementioned press release was that, lucky for this particular traveller, their insurance policy mopped up the medical bills. Essential Travel revealed several other unusual claims,
THE ALTERNATIVE NEWS RED ALL OVER
VIRGIN Atlantic president Richard Branson was left a little red-faced recently when his book, Screw Business as Usual, emerged as one of the top ten books most readily discarded on the airline’s network of services. Top spot went to Alan Sugar’s The Way I see it: Rants, Revelations and Rules for Life, with Paul Gascoigne’s Glorious: My World, Football and Me runner up, and Santa Baby by Katie Price in third. Books by Shaun Ryder, James Corden and Karl Pilkington also made the top ten. “Celebrity autobiographies and travel-related reads were the books our crew picked up most frequently at the end of a flight,” says Virgin Atlantic spokesperson Anna Catchpole.
THE FIRING LINE
including over £5,000 for someone struck by lightning in South Africa; a medical bill of £1,000 for a traveller who mistook gasoline for grappa in Turkey; and £2,550 to treat a bad case of sunburn for a holiday- maker in Mexico.
IF YOU thought clay pigeon shooting or paintballing is the most war-like corporate event you can muster, then think again. The Machine Gun Vegas experience opened early this year in 'Sin City', with its owners claiming UK visitors out- number all other overseas clients. The Gun Lounge has 16 shooting lanes and a wealth of weapons to choose from, including AK47s, MP5 submachine guns, C8 assault rifles and 'SAS favourite' the Sig Sauer P226. No alcohol is served on the premises, so the risk assessment process should be a doddle...
46 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
BIGSTOCKPHOTO.COM
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