A family headed home to San Francisco after a Hawaii vacation before realizing that one member didn’t make the return trip. Sutro the teddy bear was left behind in the hotel room at the Grand Hyatt Kauai.
When mom Anna Pickard realized what had happened, she contacted the hotel and the response went above and beyond, according to a report on CNN.
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Julien Woerpel, the Hyatt’s housekeeping director, replied to Pickard’s email that the bear had been located but rather than just sending Sutro back to Pickard’s son, he turned a sad situation into a happy one.
Woerpel and Rachel Bower, the Hyatt’s assistant executive housekeeper, gave the lucky bear the VIP treatment at the five-star hotel.
“Rachel and I thought we’d make it fun and show that his bear was just having so much fun on his Kauai vacation that he wanted to stay longer,” he told CNN Travel.
Photos showed Sutro and his new sidekick, a plush monk seal named Kauai, hanging out with the employees who found them, visiting the hotel spa for a manicure, lounging in a cabana, hanging out at the pool and more.
“We took him all around the resort where he met staff, helped do landscaping and laundry, got a spa treatment and finally checked out before heading home,” said Diann Hartmann, director of marketing communications at the Grand Hyatt.
Anna Pickard shared her story on social media and, of course, the adorable images of Sutro and Kauai’s adventures went viral.
SO thank you to Julien at @GrandHyattKauai, and his colleagues who are, apparently, just all-round lovely people who legit made me (and several dozen colleagues) cry today. Now I’m going to go and print these out and drip feed them to Doozer until Sutro lands. pic.twitter.com/uEDufv70zV
— Anna (@annapickard) January 7, 2019