HAVE you ever left anything behind when you checked out of a hotel - a pair of sunglasses, a phone charger, maybe a cat or perhaps even your children?

After speaking to our hoteliers it appears Bournemouth and Poole's tourists have left some strange surprises for the maid when they came to clean the room.

Mark Haslingden, manager of the Wessex and Carrington Hotels in Bournemouth, has come across quite a few in his time.

He said: "We've had people check out and leave their cat or dog behind. We have to call them to say, Are you aware that your cat is still in the room?'"

While working for a different hotel, Mark found somebody had left an artificial arm and a year ago, after damaging her hip, one guest asked Mark to look after her suitcase.

Her family recently came to collect it, a year later. They reported she was still alive and had left her personal clothes and jewellery inside the case.

"How you can leave it for a year I don't know," Mark added.

Before checking out many guests take one last look under the bed and check through drawers they probably didn't even use, just to make sure nothing is left behind.

Manager of the Rosscourt Hotel in Boscombe Debbie Payne reveals, however, that many of us forget to check, leading to some interesting results.

"We've had a whole wardrobe full of clothes left by a Canadian couple who were going to a wedding.

"We managed to get hold of them and they came all the way back from Heathrow," she said.

Michael Skinner, duty manager at the Montague Hotel, has also been confronted by some puzzling possessions.

He said: "I remember we had a false leg left and I wondered how the guest had made it home. It was very bizarre."

"False teeth get left at our hotel quite often and one guest dropped theirs out of a window on to a flat roof. I had to climb out to rescue them but she sent me a very nice letter afterwards to thank me."

Staff could be wise to take a deep breath before they clean rooms in future, not knowing what they will find behind the door. One thing our hoteliers have become accustomed to though is finding blow-up dolls in rooms vacated by stag and hen parties.

Travelodge has revealed a long list of items its customers leave behind.

An urn full of ashes, a glass eye, mayoral chains, a lucky charm Buddha and children are among the more bizarre things.

Some of the expensive items left are a suitcase full of diamond jewellery, a £12,000 gold necklace and the keys to a Bentley car.

The next time you take the kids and the family jewellery on holiday in your Bentley, if you accidentally hop home alone without your wooden leg, fear not, the hotel will look after your belongings for you.

  • What's the strangest thing you've ever left behind at a hotel? Let us know below