What should you do if you’ve left something behind at the cottage in Sälen?

Leaving things behind at the cabin is one of the most common mishaps in the mountains. You almost always realise this in the same spot – somewhere south of Mora, when someone in the back seat asks where the charger is. They’re rarely valuable items, but almost always things you’ll miss: a mobile phone charger, a favourite teddy bear, a pair of ski boots, a pair of glasses or a jacket left hanging in the drying room.

The good news is that things usually sort themselves out, and that your chances of this happening are much higher if you get in touch straight away. This article explains what to do, how to deal with items left behind during cleaning, and how to carry out a check-out round to prevent the whole problem from arising the next time you book mountain cabin in Sälen.

Short answer: get in touch as soon as you notice it

Time is the crucial factor. During peak season, a property is often cleaned on the same day you leave, and new guests move in that afternoon. If you get in touch within a few hours, the matter will still be in the cleaning workflow and is easy to identify. If you get in touch two weeks later, the house will have hosted several other groups, and it’s a different matter altogether.

So please ring or email straight away, even if you’re not sure whether the item is actually still in the building. It costs nothing to ask, and it’s far easier to close a case than to reopen it. And don’t wait for someone else in the group to get in touch – in a large group, everyone assumes that someone else has already done so, which is exactly how a week gets wasted.

How to report a lost item – and what you should include

The more detailed the description, the better your chances. Please include the following in your message:

• Booking reference, the name of the property and your dates of stay.
• The thing is, when it comes to colour, brand and size – ”black phone charger” is rarely specific enough, whereas ”black Samsung USB-C charger with a white cable” is often enough.
• Where in the house do you think it is: a room, a floor, the drying room, the sauna, the ski storage room?.
• A photo of something similar, if you have one, or of the original.
• Contact details and the address to which it should be sent if it is found.

The last point saves a step: if we can send it straight away once the item has been found, we won’t have to wait for a reply.

What happens to items found whilst cleaning

The cleaning team goes through the house after each guest’s departure, and anything found is noted and set aside. The items collected are usually things that clearly belong to a guest: clothes, electronic devices, toys, sports equipment and valuable toiletries. Consumables, opened food items and anything left in the fridge are treated as waste – it is not possible to save food for the next guests.

Here’s a tip that significantly increases the chances: label your children’s belongings and your own equipment. A name written inside a ski boot or on a charger makes all the difference between an item being returned and an anonymous find in a box. We’ve covered what else is expected on departure in our guide to Cleaning and check-out in practice.

How items are stored and what applies to home delivery

Items left behind are kept for a limited time before being donated or disposed of – please get in touch as soon as possible so this isn’t an issue. If you’d like the item posted, we’ll arrange it, and the recipient is responsible for the postage. For larger or fragile items – such as skis, ski boots or a pushchair – the postage may cost more than the item is worth, in which case the alternative is to collect it on your next visit or to ask a friend or relative who is coming up to bring it with them.

If there is anything of value or containing personal information – such as a wallet, passport, laptop or medication – please state this clearly in your message. Such items will be handled separately and sent by registered post.

A couple of practical tips that often sort things out more quickly: provide a delivery address where someone can accept the parcel during the day, as a parcel that is returned rarely arrives on the second attempt. And describe the item as if we’ve never seen it before – the cleaner hasn’t been in the house during your week and doesn’t know which of the three black hats is yours.

The most common items left behind in the mountains – and how to avoid it

Five categories account for almost everything. Chargers plugged into the wall socket behind the bedside table. Clothes in the drying room and the sauna changing room, which are outside the usual packing routine. Hats, gloves and headbands in the hall. The children’s soft toys and toys under the beds. And skiing or sledge equipment in the ski storage room or under the balcony, which isn’t even inside the house.

The pattern is clear: the things you forget are the ones that are somewhere other than where you’re packing. So take a walk that deliberately starts outside the bedrooms – the drying room, sauna, ski storage room, hall – before you even open your bags.

The five-minute check-out round

Do this in a specific order on the day of departure, ideally with someone who hasn’t packed their own bags:

• Drying room, sauna and ski storage – clothes, towels, swimwear, equipment.
• All the sockets in the bedroom and living room – chargers and adaptors.
• Under all the beds and behind the headboards.
• Bathroom: shower shelves, window sills, medicine cupboards.
• The fridge, the freezer and the dishwasher – both for rubbish and for forgotten lunchboxes.
• Entrance hall: hats, gloves, shoes, dog leads.
• The car: count objects, not people – bags, skis, a sledge, a shopping bag.

The tour takes five minutes and effectively solves the whole problem. If you need more time on the day of departure than the standard check-out time allows, it is sometimes possible to arrange this as an optional extra – we have described how in our guide to late check-outs in Sälen.

Summary – take home everything you brought with you

If you’ve left anything behind at the cottage: please get in touch on the same day with your booking reference, a clear description and an address, and we’ll do our best to help. Next time, you can avoid the whole problem by taking a five-minute walk round the cottage, starting in the drying room and ending in the entrance hall, and by labelling your chargers and ski boots. Feel free to add this walk round to your packing list before you set off – we’ve got a ready-made one in ours Packing list for winter in Sälen, which works just as well in reverse on the day of departure as it does forwards when packing.