Over one-third admit they’d cancel travel plans if they forgot their phone. One in 10 (11%) say they’ve missed a flight before because of forgotten items.
A recent survey of 2,000 UK and IE residents has revealed the items people are most likely to forget to take with them on holiday. Forgotten items have been found to have a potentially substantial impact on holidays, with 38% saying they’d cancel travel if they forgot their phone. The research commissioned by car hire excess insurance providers iCarhireinsurance.com and undertaken with Censuswide highlighted that 57% of holidaymakers have forgotten to pack something when going away. The most commonly forgotten items are:
- Sun cream 17%
- Toiletries: 15%
- Phone or device chargers: 14%
- Sunglasses: 14%
- Pyjamas: 10%
All told, the annual cost of these forgotten items to British and Irish holidaymakers has been calculated at around £170 million*. The research also revealed the common consequences of forgetting items when packing for a holiday. Almost one-half (45%) say forgotten items have stressed them out on holiday, with one-quarter (25%) admitting that arguments had erupted as a result. 15% say they’ve incurred significant costs as a consequence of forgotten items, and 1 in 10 (11%) have actually missed a flight because they’d left something behind.
The item most likely to cause missed flights if left behind is foreign currency. 44% of people say they wouldn’t travel if they had forgotten their spending money. A range of other items were cited as sufficient reason to miss flights by some:
- 38% wouldn’t go on holiday if they forgot their phone
- 35% wouldn’t go without their keys
- One-third (33%) wouldn’t travel if they forgot their travel insurance documents
- 30% would not travel without their medicines
When it comes to who is most likely to forget an item, it is younger travellers who are more culpable. Three-quarters (74%) of 16 to-24-year-olds admit they’ve forgotten to take something with them on holiday, compared to just 29% of over-55s. This is despite younger people also indicating that forgotten items are likely to have a bigger impact on their trip. Half (50%) of 16 to 24-year-olds say they wouldn’t go on holiday without their phone, compared to just 37% of over-55s.
Ernesto Suarez, CEO and Founder of iCarhireinsurance.com, said about the research: “Forgetting items at any point on a holiday is a huge pain, but we wanted to see how much this could impact holidaymakers this summer. The results make clear just how much we stand to lose if we aren’t careful with our belongings whilst away. To avoid incurring unnecessary costs, travellers should always have checklists for belongings they’ve packed, and have a last sweep of a hotel room before they leave to avoid forgetting items.”
*To find out the cost of items lost and forgotten on holiday, iCarhireinsurance.com calculated the number of people from across the UK and Ireland who go on holiday annually. We then surveyed a representative group to establish what percentage of people forget items every time they return from holiday. Using this information, we calculated the number of people who leave items behind when returning from holiday every year. We then found average costs for all of the forgotten items listed in our survey results and calculated the cost of the number of them that had been forgotten on holiday, based on the percentage of people who had left behind each item.
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
