A flight attendant left a personal item behind. Photo / Getty Images
When it comes to checking out of a hotel, there's always a chance of leaving something behind.
As a traveller departing from a room, perhaps to catch an early flight or train, we've all experienced that sensation upon arriving to the airport that our luggage feels a little lighter — only to realise we left half our belongings in the closet of our hotel room or in the cabinet of the bathroom.
While some of the most common items left behind are socks, jocks and perhaps the odd mobile phone charger — there's another item that tends to rank quite high on the list.
Sex toys. And now, one flight attendant knows exactly what it's like to have their sneaky toy uncovered after check out.
In a post on Facebook, which has generated more than 2000 likes, a teleprinter message indicates a crew member accidentally left a "25cm dildo in one of the crew rooms" during a hotel stay in Manchester.
The brief message signed off with a simple instruction, advising the owner to collect the item from ops (operations) at a later time.
The awkward memo, which was posted to the A Fly Guy's Cabin Crew Lounge, was met with hundreds of comments from the amused group.
"They even measured it, I guess someone's being "creative" with their love stories," one person wrote.
"Somebody must've felt really lonely," another added.
Sex toys are commonly left behind when a guest checks out of a hotel, mainly because they're hidden out of sight, in a drawer or under the bed.
According to a 2015 study, a third of hotel lost property is sex-related.
Andrea Tarpey, from Laterooms.com, who carried out the survey at the time, said: "While we fully expected smartphones, laptops and chargers to top the list, we were really surprised by some of the more unusual items our hotel partners have come across in their rooms — especially the number who regularly find abandoned sex toys."
The company polled 8000 UK hoteliers across all levels of the hospitality industry to investigate what really gets left behind closed doors.
While mobile phones and laptops were high up on the list, the study found more than a third of all items abandoned by UK hotel guests were either sex toys or sex-related.
Ms Tarpey added: "Our hoteliers are constantly amazed, and often outraged, by the things that guests routinely leave behind in their hotel rooms, with items ranging from the ordinary to the outlandish.
"The sheer variety of items left behind in hotel rooms reflects the huge range of reasons behind our customers' breaks — and the wonderfully colourful and very different characters our hotel partners welcome into their guestrooms."