PSA: Leave extra time when forwarding luggage

Hello all. I work in a hotel in Japan, and I wanted to warn everyone about something that I've seen happening more often.

When you use the luggage forwarding service, most people will have no problems.

However, remember that it is not 100%. Delays happen. Mistakes happen. There may be problems.

So, create a buffer of a day or so when you ship it. Or be prepared for things to arrive late.

Most importantly, don't ship important things like your passport, wallet, medicine, etc. Take these things with you because you may need them, and if there is a problem with the luggage transfer, you will be without these items until the luggage arrives.

In the past month or so at my hotel, we have had a lot of luggage that arrives in a split shipment. Sometimes it is just a few hours; for example, they bring 2 suitcases at 9 am and then 2 more at 11:30 am.

Other times, it has been a half day or more. This happens frequently when luggage is shipped in the late afternoon or evening. Some bags will arrive in the morning and then the others will arrive in the evening.

We have even had guests (yes, plural) who had to wait 3-4 days for their luggage to arrive. Sometimes it didn't arrive before their check out and they had to work with Yamato to get their luggage.

There was one guest recently who shipped their luggage early, and most of it arrived. One piece didn't arrive, so the day of their check-in we spent time calling the Yamato sales office and the previous hotel. The sales office couldn't do anything until we knew what the bag looked like, so we had to wait for the guest to check in. Then we had to continue to coordinate with the sales office for the guest, explaining what the bag looked like, the size, etc., Then the office searched for the bag and was able to send it - several days after the other luggage had been shipped.

If you are staying at a hotel for only one night, ship your luggage early. If it is arrives after you check out, you then have to go through the hassle of either waiting for it to arrive, OR have it shipped somewhere else. Just because you selected morning delivery, that doesn't mean that it will arrive at 9 or 10 am. Morning delivery is between 9-12 (usually). But things happen and sometimes it might be 1:00 or 2:00 or 3:00 pm.

And of course, if you are flying out the next day, there is a chance that your luggage will not arrive before your flight. This happened TWICE in the past month at my hotel. The guests couldn't wait for their luggage and so they left. It created a headache for us, for their previous hotel, and for Yamato.

In general, the luggage transfer system works well. But, it is also becoming overloaded. So be careful and plan ahead. And don't take it out on the hotel workers if something goes wrong.