When it comes to preventing the loss of items on the road, most travelers know of just one tool: Apple’s AirTag. The chubby, coin-sized device has become so ubiquitous that a number of airlines will now use AirTag in their own systems to track lost luggage.
AirTag and other digital trackers designed to locate lost stuff work well, but the devices have their drawbacks. You might have an AirTag in your luggage, but what if you lose your keys? Or you might be able to see where your stuff is, but how are you going to get it back if you left your suitcase in a taxi or at a hotel rather than the airport? Or what happens after the digital tracker loses its charge?
Fortunately, there’s a simpler, cheaper solution that can stand in for—or augment—digital trackers.
Founded in 2010, ReturnMe creates attachable tags of different shapes and sizes that can be stuck to luggage, keys, laptops, backpacks, passports, wallets, sunglasses, you name it. (Some folks even affix ReturnMe tags to dog and cat collars).
Each tag has its own unique code and comes marked with the web address and phone number of ReturnMe so that people who find the items can contact the company to help reunite owners with their belongings. Finders are incentivized to return what’s lost by the offer of a reward worth $50 of ReturnMe products.
How ReturnMe Tags Work
ReturnMe tags cost between $8 and $15 and have no expiration date. Once the tag is purchased, the owner simply goes to the ReturnMe website to register the code, which remains valid indefinitely.
If a lost item is found, the owner will be notified and can either collect the item in person or engage ReturnMe to ship it home. The company charges a $35 handling fee to help with returns. Clients can choose their preferred return method—overnight, ground delivery, etc. Shipping costs are added to the final tally.
Does the system work? Can you really get your lost stuff back by relying on the kindness of strangers, à la Blanche DuBois?
According to ReturnMe founder Suhail Niazi, the company has made some 15,000 recoveries around the world so far.
“We’ve done studies where we’ve purposefully lost items to see if they come back,” he says. “Looking at those, and at our records, we’ve found that 95% of the lost keys with ReturnMe stickers get returned. It used to be that only 50% of the lost cell phones got returned, but now that they’re so much harder to resell, we’re seeing about 85% of those getting back to their owners. Other items are also being returned in high percentages”
According to Niazi, Uber drivers and police officers are the two groups ReturnMe hears from most often about wanting to return items.
Sometimes the situations the company uncovers seem to have come from a Hollywood screenwriter. Niazi told me of a woman who called in the code for a wallet she found in a jacket at her home. Turned out the wallet’s owner was having an affair with the woman’s husband.
You may have already used a ReturnMe tag without even realizing it. Only 5% of ReturnMe’s sales are for the original product. Most of the company’s income comes from partnerships with large corporations that give away coded stickers for free—but rebranded for Air Canada, American Airlines, Honda, Expedia, State Farm, several universities, and other big names.
If you can’t get one of these handy little stickers for free from one of those institutions, you can browse the options for purchase at ReturnMeTags.com.