Left baggage refers to luggage intentionally left in storage facilities at airports, train stations, and hotels for a fee. Locker banks are the most common storage method, with digital combination systems and time-based fees. Lost baggage may also be referred to as left baggage and can be claimed at lost baggage offices.
In most cases, left baggage is baggage that passengers have deliberately left in designated baggage storage facilities. Airports, train stations and hotels across Europe have offices where travelers can store their luggage, usually for a fee. The same offices exist in the United States and Canada, but are usually referred to as baggage screening facilities.
Some of the most popular left luggage facilities are located in hotels. Guests arriving at the hotel before their room is ready may have the option of storing their luggage with the hotel’s luggage service. The same services are usually available to guests who need to leave their room before the scheduled departure time. The hotel’s left luggage service is usually free, although customers are often encouraged to tip the baggage handlers.
Left luggage locations in more public places are sometimes also supervised left luggage locations. Most bag drop locations charge a per-piece fee, assessed on an hourly or daily basis. More often than not, however, these structures take the form of locker banks. Lockers offer the same basic benefit, which is to offer travelers a way to store their luggage for unobstructed sightseeing or travel, but usually at a much lower cost.
Luggage lockers are the mainstay of most airports and train stations in Europe. Lockers are usually large enough to fit luggage of different sizes and types. Storing luggage in these systems once required users to supply or rent their own locks, although most use a digital combination system today.
They work with coins or credit cards, based on the time or day. When the time runs out, the lockers usually open automatically. This discourages long-term storage and prevents locker space from being hogged by abandoned properties.
In some circumstances, left luggage may not refer to luggage intended to be stored, but rather to luggage lost or not collected during the journey. For example, bags that are not picked up at a carousel are sometimes referred to as left baggage as they have been left or forgotten by their owners. Baggage left in this sense is lost, intentionally not checked or temporarily stored.
Most airlines and rail carriers have lost baggage offices where passengers can ask questions and make claims for baggage that was left behind or did not arrive when promised. Lost Baggage Officers find lost bags through computer database searches by claim number or by identifying bags that were not picked up at the destination where they were mistakenly locked. Airlines usually keep lost luggage for a certain amount of time in hopes of reconnecting it with its owner.
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