An interesting article notes that hotels may only retain lost items for short period of time and dispose of electronic items in a variety of ways

http://blog.winmagic.com/2014/03/26/with-lost-laptops-its-finders-keepers/

http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/laptops/321933-hotels-play-finders-keepers-with-lost-smartphones-and-laptops

QUOTE: We’re all human, and humans forget things. And as previously discussed on this bog, laptops are commonly lost. And while one cannot really blame hotels for discarding lost devices that are cluttering their storage rooms (if no one claims them after a reasonable period of time, of course), the survey reminds us all that our laptops could literally end up anywhere. IT and security pros need to deploy full disk encryption technologies to protect the information on these devices, and they need to establish policies that do not interfere with how people work but protect any data on the device if it is lost or stolen.