P23 Lost-and-found Management - Notes

Date: 2026-05-20 Process: process_hotel_national_p23_lost_and_found_management.bpmn

Local hotel context used

• Hotel National Zermatt runs with front office and housekeeping leadership, which supports the standard split where found items are discovered by operational staff and controlled/logged centrally.
• This process sits after stay and departure operations, especially room cleaning and check-out, where most forgotten property is discovered.
• The hotel context favors a practical alpine-resort approach: logging, secure storage, guest verification, and either collection or guest-paid shipment.

Source-backed references

• Lost-and-found front-office SOP: the process starts when a guest reports a missing item, housekeeping discovers property in a room or public area, or an item reaches the hotel after departure; the item should be logged, stored, and tracked for return. https://checklist.com/hotel/front-office/lost-and-found
• Housekeeping lost-and-found procedure: found items from rooms and public areas are sent promptly to the designated lost-and-found control point and documented carefully. https://www.idhotelier.com/post/lost-found
• Housekeeping protocol guidance: document item description, where and when found, finder identity, and storage location to maintain chain of custody and guest trust. https://hospitality.institute/bha205/lost-found-procedures-housekeeping/
• Practical hotel lost-item handling: guests usually need to describe the item and arrange or pay for shipping if they want it returned remotely. https://help.marriott.com/s/article/lost-something-at-hotel

Modeling assumptions applied

• The process has two legitimate starts: a guest inquiry about a missing item, or staff finding an item in a vacated room / public area.
• Housekeeping or the operational finder hands the item to Front Office / designated control, where the item is logged and stored securely.
• Valuable or sensitive items are stored separately under tighter control, but the BPMN keeps that as a secure-storage task rather than a separate participant.
• The hotel verifies ownership before release using guest description, stay details, room number, or identifying characteristics.
• If the item is matched, the guest chooses either collection on site or paid shipment; the hotel closes the case only after handover / dispatch is recorded.
• If no match is found, the item remains held according to policy; the BPMN closes at “held unclaimed” rather than modeling the later disposal/donation policy in detail.