mail seemingly been returned to sender though address valid

[terry1974]

I live for the most part in the north, but a friend who has a hotel in London keeps me a permanent room if needed available all year round so
some items of mail I leave set up on mailing lists to arrive at the London address especially if i need larger documents or updates there, the mail should just be delivered there and is not on a redirection, it just "waits" with the owner till i get there. however i am noticing that when items expected are not landing and upon checking on email with the sender a few have advised - oh it came back returned as gone away or it has rts across it- clearly its not landed at the address and just appears to be sent back at the hand of the sorting office (not the property owner) - could someone at RM advise if the property owner is getting mail, theres no redirection (i'm happy the mail to land there till i go there) and no Rts is been done by the London based property owner, is there some marker on the address to return mail as its obviously mail in my name not the property owners - although as they have several long term stayers their mail seems to be landing. if there is a marker what form does this take, is it like a card on a sorting office shelf saying pick out/deselect certain named mail or could there be a processing error like a wrongly set up redirection - that ive not set up? thankyou

[Shaugi]

As far as I am aware theres no such thing as a marker to RTS certain named post. There's markers for mail to be held at the delivery office as a keep safe.
Could it be that the post is being delivered but the person on reception isn't aware of your agreement with the owner and is returning the post as they haven't heard of you?

[yellowbelly]

How does mail physically get delivered at the hotel?

Is there a main letterbox for the whole hotel? Individual letterboxes for rooms? Or does mail just get handed to somebody on reception?

As suggested it might be that somebody might have said 'Don't know who they are' and the postie is now pre-emptively RTS'ing mail with your name on. I'd clarify with your hotel owning friend if someone might have said something of that nature. However, the postie should deliver everything and let the hotel make the decision with the mail.

A lot of posties with regular rounds know their customers and who died, moved away permanently with no connection to the property anymore etc. and will RTS mail addressed to the previous occupant - totally unofficial and against the rules but that's what happens. I still get mail addressed to an occupant of a property who emigrated to be with her son overseas about five years ago, she never put a redirection in place at all. Confirmed with the current occupants when they took over the property she has definitely no involvement with the property anymore and she still gets letters from the NHS and DWP (as well as cruise catalogues, holiday brochures) which I pre-emptively return as 'Gone away'!

From the tone of your post I believe you think this is an official Royal Mail site, it's not - it's unofficial opinions and experiences of RM employees. I'd suggest you clarify with your friend at the hotel first and then raise a complaint through the Royal Mail website.

You shouldn't have to do this but if you feel inclined and can bear the cost of a stamp(!) send yourself a letter addressed to the hotel with your actual return address on the back of it and see what happens.

[terry1974]

thanks for your replies they are helpful and appreciated. the hotel is pretty much one letterbox for all items although more often than not when I've been there the postie just brings it in in person and hands it to the reception desk or slides it under the glass so there's no free for all scramble ( like used to be the case at a previous multi occupancy house i was rooming in in the early 2000s) where a pile of seemingly hundreds of letters of every person whod every lived there was just like a sliding mountain behind the door panel letterbox. I will try out a test letter and see if it gets through OK or comes back. many thanks for your advice