This is a host dilemma I have heard about from time to time in the host community.
There was a host, let's call her Anne, who lives in a 2 bedroom house in Florida. Anne travels a lot, and rents out her home to guests when she is on business trips. SInce the home is her primary residence, she has all her belongings there, and she doesn't let guests use her own bedroom but she lets them use the guest bedroom and a pull out sofa bed in the living room. She keeps all her valuables locked in her own bedroom, but has art pieces and knick knacks throughout the house, including a small porcelain doll that is a family heirloom, which she keeps on the bookshelf in the living room.
Anne had a group of 4 guests staying at her home for 9 days in September. She met them when they arrived, and they seemed to her like congenial, pleasant tourists -- two young couples in their early 30's coming to Florida for a vacation. She felt that they were friendly, and they were diligent about removing their shoes when they entered her home. She showed them around and showed them where to find things, explained the wifi and the use of the TV. Then she said goodbye, and told them she would be back in 9 days and if they had any questions about check out,, her flight would arrive a couple hours before they were due to depart, so they could certainly reach her by text message.
Anne didn't hear anything from her guests, during their stay, and when she got back home an hour after checkout time, the guests had departed. They had not left the house as clean as she would have liked, which disappointed her, but there was no damage either -- which Anne sometimes worried about, as she had read stories of guests causing damage to furniture or floors. The trash had not been taken out and dirty dishes had been left in the sink, and a wet towel on the floor in the bathroom, but nothing more than that.
THen, walking through the living room to take out the trash, Anne glanced over at the bookshelf, and suddenly her stomach dropped. She looked at the spot where her grandmother's porcelain doll had been kept on the shelf, and it was gone! Anne suddenly panicked. Quickly,she looked back and forth and across the bookshelf, to see if it had been misplaced and moved. She saw it nowhere. Anne then set the trash on the floor and anxiously looked all over the living room. No doll to be found. Then she looked in the dining room, kitchen, and room by room, all through the house. She could not find her dolll anywhere. She even looked in the bag of trash she was about to carry out -- as well as in the trash that had already been put in the trash can. The doll was nowhere to be found!
Anne was beside herself, as this little porcelain doll had been a cherished gift from her grandmother and meant so much to her.
What would be your advice to Anne about what to do?