Cartier watches missing from rooms at MAYBOURNE RIVIERA

I want to share my experience as a lesson and warning to future travelers considering a stay at Maybourne Riviera.

This was our 6th summer coming to the south of France, and our 3rd stay at Maybourne. During our most recent stay in August, my Cartier watch disappeared from our hotel room.

We reported it to hotel management as soon as we realized that it was missing from the room, and went to the local police station to file a report in Menton (as the smaller police station in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin was closed that Saturday). We were initially told that the hotel was conducting an internal investigation.

After several weeks without a meaningful update, I reached out to them once again, and was ultimately told that the investigation was closed and that “there’s not much we can do from here”.

As if the incident itself wasn’t shocking enough, when I ultimately decided to go share my review on Tripadvisor last week, I was absolutely stunned to find another very recent view from another Maybourne hotel guest, reporting that her Cartier watch had also gone missing from her hotel room during her stay. Her account on Tripadvisor was so eerily similar to mine that I felt compelled to reach out to her. (There isn't an option to direct message a reviewer on Tripadvisor, so I ended up spending hours essentially doing internet stalking trying to find this person, going by her small profile photo and her username on Tripadvisor... eventually I found her instagram profile which happens to be public and sent her a message).

We have now compared our experiences, and what we discovered is extremely troubling:

Both of our high value Cartier watches went missing from our respective hotel rooms on the exact same day - August 21.

There is another particularly concerning similarity. When we each initially reported our missing watches to hotel management while still at the property, we were both told that "another guest had reported a similar incident" but had ultimately "found their watch in their pocket or among their belongings".

We now know that was not the case. Neither of us found our watches. Both remain missing.

I am not alleging, without further evidence, that the two incidents were committed by the same individual(s). However, the existence of a second independently reported Cartier theft from a guest room on the same exact day warrants serious examination than simply concluding that “there’s not much we can do" from the hotel.

My TA review (written on Sept 17) is still the most recent review on the Maybourne tripavisor page as of today.

Yes my watch was not placed in the safe box, but is that really the standard of security guests should reasonably expect from a place like Maybourne Riviera??? Should guests reasonably expect that a $30,000 watch left in the room, outside of the safe, may simply disappear, with the hotel ultimately taking no responsibility and providing no meaningful explanation? As I've mentioned, we've been coming to the French Riviera for many years and have stayed at many of the region's top luxury properties. I have always travelled with this watch, and have never felt the need to lock it up in the hotel safe. This was a very expensive lesson for us .. to say the least.

For future travelers - and especially luxury travel advisors who may be recommending this property to clients - I would think TWICE before choosing the Maybourne Riviera. Sure the view is spectacular, but nothing is worth the risk and stress of having a valuable personal item disappear from your hotel room (just because they weren't placed in the safe), and then receiving no meaningful resolution from the hotel.

What is particularly disturbing to me is that at least two guests are now reporting Cartier watches worth approximately $30,000 going missing from their rooms during the same period, and hotel management is acting like business as usual saying "well sorry nothing we can do".

To be clear, I am not making an accusation against any particular hotel employee, but when two guests independently report serious incidents at the same hotel, involving remarkably similar high-value watches disappearing on the same day - I know that if I were a prospective guest, I would absolutely want to know about this.

The underlying incidents are deeply troubling. The hotel's response to them is, in my opinion, a serious concern in its own right.

I am sharing this simply so that future guests, particularly those traveling with valuable personal belongings, can make an informed decision about whether this is a property they feel comfortable staying at.