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A mum has split the opinions of fellow parents online after ranting about her kids toys being “stolen” at a 5* hotel resort.

The mother explained hat she’d done on holiday to a sunny country with her children aged two, three and five.

She noted that she bought plenty of pool and beach toys for them to play with, but found it hard to keep track around the pool.

To her horror she realised that at the end of each day lost toys were piled up by the loungers – and promptly pillaged by other guests.

The parent posted on Mumsnet to ask for opinions on whether “people in five star hotels steal children's pool toys deliberately.”

She wrote: “We've never been on holiday before since having the DC.

"I have a two, a three and a five year old, and after much saving we went away for half term to a nice sunny country and stayed in a five star all inclusive.

“Took a few toys with us and purchased beach buckets in various shops at extortionate prices.

“Toddlers mainly liked taking things into the pool. But so many things went missing .”

She continued: “At the end of each day the pools were all cleared, stuff fished out and the various inflatables and toys are piled up in one area of forgotten stuff.

“Only on one occasion did something turn up.

“On the last day I saw someone put a load of what I was 99% sure was our stuff in their pushchair."

The aggravated mother was confused by the other guests behaviour.

She added: “Should I have challenged them ? Do people in five star hotels steal children's pool toys deliberately?

“We lost 12 items in a week. Is it just stuff being misplaced or borrowed? I can't stop other children playing with my DC's toys and with three to keep and eye on in a pool its impossible to manage that."

But, most other mums on the site explained that she had to collect up her items when she left the pool each day.

One parent commented: “You're expected to look after your own stuff and unfortunately it will go 'missing' if you don't take it back in after being used.”

Another added: “A lot of the time people leave their stuff in the pool on the last day for other people to enjoy as they don't have room in suitcases to take it home.

“You're expected to take them back to your room each day/keep on your balcony. As otherwise people think they're available to take.”

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And, another replied: “I see this on Facebook hotel pages all the time.

“Firstly people saying we are going home help yourself to stuff around the kids pool etc, and then others saying the hotel is full of thieves.”

The original poster added: “Im not talking about them using it or thinking it belongs to the hotel, I'm talking about it then vanishing from the pool area completely. I've never taken something that didn't belong to me.

“I’m saying when stuff disappeared during the our time in pool I checked back at the lost property pile after dinner. Only once was our missing item there.

“I don't know maybe there's a really clogged up pool filter somewhere or people just steal kids stuff, which makes me really sad.”

Some mums commented with advice for her next holiday.

Do you have a travel story you'd like shared in the Daily Star? Tell us at [email protected]

One noted: “Just write your name on it. I think people sometimes assume pool/beach toys belong to the hotel.”

While another added: “I rarely take anything to hotels. Sooo much stuff is left behind that I just ask the reps on the first day if there are any buckets/inflatables/parasols that I can use and they always say yes."

A third scolded: “The obvious thing is to only let each child have one or two things at a time and then make them put them away before they get anything else out so you can keep an eye on everything.

“I think next time you need to take a bit more responsibility for your belongings by making sure things have names on, ensuring that you don’t get out more stuff than your kids can play with.”

• Holidays
• Mumsnet

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