Talbot Marketing - Promotional Products

I just arrived home this week from a business trip to Hong Kong. It was an eventful trip in more ways than one. What I want to share with everyone is something that happened to me that has never happened before. I lost my wallet! Or more accurately, my wallet was stolen. Being in a foreign country with no wallet is a little disconcerting to say the least. But fortunately, many years ago, a business colleague taught me something about business travel or just travels in general.

Once of the first things I do when I get to my hotel room is separate my wallet. Everything I won't need, passport, drivers licence, heath card, social insurance card, excess cash etc. etc. I put into the room safe. I only carry a small wallet with a little cash and credit cards. This was all I lost, credit cards and cash. While this was upsetting enough, it could have been an awful lot worse. I still had cash back in the room safe to get by, plus all my ID. A quick call to the banks and my credit cards were cancelled. Something to take note of. You know those credit card commercials that say if your card is ever lost or stolen ANYWHERE in the world you'll get a replacement one right away? Give yourself a few days. Right away does not mean that day or the next for that matter.

I lost my wallet in one of the many red cabs in Hong Kong. I have to share what my hotel did. I always stay at the Langham Hong Kong in Kowloon. Once I realized my wallet was gone, which was immediately after the cab pulled away, I called the concierge at the Langham to advise them. What they did next exceed all my expectations. They reviewed their security tapes, found footage of me and my colleagues getting into the taxi, and more importantly what they got from the film footage was the taxi number. They put a call into taxi company to say a guest of their left his wallet in taxi # 1222 and asked that it be returned immediately. At this point my hopes were high that I would get my wallet back. But that never happened. However, I was still very impressed with the staff at the Langham Hong Kong for going the extra mile to try and retrieve my lost wallet. By the way, that is why I say my wallet was stolen. I knew where it was, the driver just did not bring it back.

If I can impress upon you one thing...a good habit to get into is splitting your wallet up when you arrive at your business or vacation destination. It could save you a tremendous amount of aggravation at some point in time.