Ski resort lost and found software: the gloves stayed on the lift, the skier flew home.

Why lost property on a mountain is hard

A ski day spreads lost property across a whole mountain: gloves dropped from a chairlift, goggles left on a lodge table, a phone in a rental shop boot bag, a child’s helmet at the ski school meeting point. Items are handed in at whichever desk is nearest, and the guest calls a different one.

Much of it looks alike. A list that says “black gloves, lift 4” cannot tell twenty pairs apart, and by the time the owner notices, they are often at the airport or on the drive home.

From the lift hut to guest services

Lift operators, patrol, lodge, rental and ski school staff log items in the browser on any phone or tablet, each with their own login. A photo is enough to start: vFound AI suggests the title, category, colour and description for staff to check, and staff add where it was found and where it is stored.

• Record the lift, run, lodge or shop where the item was found, and the storage bin or shelf that now holds it.
• Guests search by keyword, category and the date they lost it, with no account and no app.
• A guest who recognises an item submits a claim with private details only the owner would know, and can add proof photos.
• Staff accept or decline, then mark the claim ready for pickup or ready for shipment, and every return is recorded with who did what and when.

Guests staying on the mountain

A venue set up as a ski resort also gets vFound Hotel stays: a minimal private record of each lodging stay that staff can link to an item found in a room. Add stays by hand, by CSV or through the scoped vFound API, or connect your own Cloudbeds property key with read:reservation access only.

The item keeps the room where it was found even if the guest moves, a room number never suggests an owner, and the claim is still decided on the guest’s own proof. Rates, card details and ID documents stay in your property system.

vFound AI for guests who have already gone home

Most skiers notice the missing goggles at the hotel, the airport or home. vFound AI lets them start looking from wherever they are, in their own language.

• Lost report chat: a skier describes the loss in their own words and language, and vFound AI asks a few short questions and fills in the report for them to check and send.
• Guest photo search: a guest can search with a photo of what they lost, or of the same model of goggles, used for that search only and not stored.
• Likely matches: a lost report shows likely matches with a one-line reason, and a standing watch emails the guest each time a likely match is logged over the next 90 days, such as after the lifts are swept at closing.
• For items logged with photo auto-fill, search keywords are written in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch and Italian, so a guest who types “gants” or “Handschuhe” finds the gloves.
• Guest messages in another language are translated for your team, and staff reply in the guest’s language.
• AI suggests. Your team decides: vFound AI never changes a claim or an item on its own and never identifies people from images.

Closing day without the cupboard of gloves

Set a holding period that fits your season. Expiring items are surfaced before they lapse, so the end of the season is a reviewed clear-out on the record. Donations and disposals go out in numbered batches, each with a certificate, an item with a claim still waiting for a decision stays put, and CSV export keeps a copy of the season’s log.

Several mountains, one login

Each mountain or resort runs as its own venue, with its own guest page, inventory and subscription, so guests search the resort they actually visited. One owner sign-in switches between them, and a customer-owned group command centre shows aggregate workload, account health and policy differences across the resorts you own. Group access never grants billing or the right to close a resort’s account.

What vFound leaves to other systems

vFound runs your lost property desk. Plan around what it does not do before you buy.

• There is no connector for lift ticketing, season passes, rental shops or resort management systems. The scoped vFound API, signed webhooks and CSV import are there if your team wants to build a link.
• Guests hear from you by email and through their private link, in their language. vFound does not send texts to phones.
• Returns by post use your own courier: agree any cost with the guest in the claim’s messages, then add the tracking number. Guest tracking links cover Canada Post, UPS, FedEx, USPS, DHL and Purolator.
• vFound never decides who owns an item and never returns anything on its own. A person on your team checks each claim and records each return.