Hotel lost and found log in Google Sheets

The five steps in 25 seconds

Transcript of the video

1. 0:00

   LOST AND FOUND

   A guest keeps calling about a charger. Nobody knows where it is.

   Google Forms and Sheets. Free. About 20 minutes.

2. 0:02

   1

   Build the form

   forms.google.com

   QUESTIONS

   Item

   Where found

   Description

   Stored at

   Found by

3. 0:05

   2

   Link it to a Sheet

   Responses > Link to Sheets

   Every found item becomes a row.

4. 0:08

   3

   Add a Status column

   Insert > Dropdown

   STATUS

   Held

   Returned

   Disposed

5. 0:11

   4

   Save a Still held view

   Data > Create filter view

   Status is Held, oldest first.

6. 0:14

   5

   When a guest calls

   Filter > Search

   Search the Description column.

7. 0:16

   What this does not do

   It does not contact the guest.

   It does not set your keep period.

   Someone still updates the Status.

8. 0:19

   The free guide has the form questions and every step.

   vivifiedtech.com/guides

   Link in the post.

Step 1: Build the form

1. Go to forms.google.com, click Blank form, and name it "Lost and found".
2. Add five questions, and mark each one Required:
   • Item, Short answer
   • Where found (room or area), Short answer
   • Description (colour, size, any marks), Paragraph
   • Stored at (shelf, bag or box number), Short answer
   • Found by, Short answer
3. Tell staff not to write guest names on the form. A room number is enough.
4. Optional: add a photo question. Choose File upload. Responders must sign in to a Google Account, the files go to a new folder in the form owner's Google Drive, and file upload is not available if the form sits in a shared drive.
5. If the form sits on a shared front-desk or housekeeping device, open Settings, then Presentation, and turn on Disable autosave for all respondents.

Step 2: Link it to a Sheet

1. Open Responses, click Link to Sheets, and create a new spreadsheet. Name it "Lost and found log".
2. Every found item becomes a new row, one column per question. Example row, for illustration only: Phone charger | 312 | White, with a short cable | Shelf B, bag 14 | Housekeeping, morning.

Step 3: Add a Status column

1. In the response tab, click the first empty column to the right of the last question and type "Status".
2. Select that column's cells below the header, open Insert, then Dropdown, and add three items: Held, Returned, Disposed. Click Done.
3. Add another column next to it, "Returned to", for who collected the item or where it was sent.
4. Google does not document adding your own columns next to a form's response columns. Send a test item and check it lands in a new row, with Status left blank for you to fill in. If you add a question to the form later, check where its new column appears before you trust Status again.

Step 4: Save a "Still held" view

1. Click Data, then Create filter view.
2. Filter Status to Held, filtering by values, and sort by Timestamp so the oldest found item is first.
3. Click Save View and name it Still held. Open it again later with Data, then Change view.
4. At shift change, check the Still held view for anything that needs following up. See our shift handover guide for passing that on.
5. Deciding what happens to an item held past [your keep period] is your hotel's own policy. This view only shows you what is still in storage.

Step 5: Answer a guest who asks

1. Open the log, click the filter icon on the Description column, and type a word into the Search box, for example "charger".
2. Check the matching row's Where found and Stored at columns against what the guest describes.
3. When the item goes back to the guest, set Status to Returned and fill in Returned to.
4. Follow your hotel's own procedure for valuables and for checking who is collecting an item.
5. Put the form link where staff will use it: click Publish, then Published, then Copy responder link. Tick Shorten URL for a short link, and bookmark it on the desk computer and on housekeeping phones. Share it with staff only.
6. Optional: if one person should hear about every new item, open Responses, then More, and turn on Get email notifications for new responses. Our maintenance request guide covers who receives that email.

Details and limits

Checked on 2026-11-01. Google moves menus between versions, so look for the same words if yours differ.

What it does

Every found item gets the same five details, plus a shelf or bag number, through one form. Each item gets one Status, updated by hand, and the Still held view gives you one place to see what is still in storage, oldest first. All of it is free with a Google account, with no add-on and no script.

What it can't do

It does not contact the guest or match a found item to a booking. It does not remind anyone when an item has been held too long. It does not set your keep period or your valuables rules. Those are your hotel's own policy. Status only changes when a person changes it.

Limits

From September 2026, a form is limited to 1 GB of storage and 500,000 responses. Sheets sync may stop above 100,000 responses. Permissions on the form and on the linked Sheet do not sync after the Sheet is created, so change both if you add or remove someone. Deleting a response in the form cannot be undone, and the Sheet is a separate file. A photo question needs the responder signed in to a Google Account, and is not available for a form kept in a shared drive.

When this stops being enough

When items should be matched to a guest's stay, or someone should be reminded about an item held past the keep period, a form and a sheet cannot do that on their own.

Read how the no-build-fee model works.

Sources

1. How to use Google Forms
2. Choose a type of question for your form
3. Choose where to save form responses
4. View & manage form responses
5. Publish & share your form with responders
6. Edit your form
7. Create an in-cell dropdown list
8. Sort & filter your data

Related guides

• Hotel maintenance request form and log
• Shift handover form with a morning email
• Hotel room status board in Google Sheets