personal property stolen from hotel room

[patig]

I reside in california and recently visited a nothern california hotel.
when renting the room, we notified the manager that we had a laptop computer in the room, should we keep it in the car?
We were told no, no theft problems here.

On december 31st at 2:00pm my laptop was under the chair with in the room with the curtains closed and "do not disturb" on the door.

when packing to leave early in the morning of Jan 01,2002, I realized my computer was missing.

upon speaking to the same desk clerk, she informed me that in error yesterday she "whited out" our names in error when she moved the room of our neighbor. when doing this, she thought our room was then available.
She rented our room to another party. giving them the keys.
The other party entered our room.

this was between 2 - 3 pm

Several minutes later, the party returned to the room and informed her that the room was occupied.

We returned to our room approx 7pm new years eve not to leave again.

the general manager arrived to the site along with the police department.

the general manager accepted responsibility for the loss along with the desk clerk.

upon speaking to their insurance carrier, they apparently had dropped coverage for guest losses.
therefor, they claim no reposnsibility.

the morning of the loss, the desk clerk was nice enough to write a statement to the fact that she did allow others into our room in error.

now what can I do?

 

[JackieTroll]

Unless you have something from the hotel in writing that they will reimburse you, you are out of luck.

You were foolish for leaving the computer in your room, regardless of whatever the clerk told you. Even the dingiest of dumps post a notice on the inside of each door that they are NOT responsible for personal articles left in a room.