Hoi An Travel Tips
Lost and Found in Hoi An: What to Do When You Leave Something Behind
Lost and Found in Hoi An: What to Do When You Leave Something Behind
A guest left a bag with a camera under the seat of a rental scooter, and it went back the same afternoon. Here is the lost and found playbook we use: bikes, Grab rides, hotels, and a lost passport.
Most things that go missing in Hoi An are not stolen. They are left behind: on a scooter seat, in the back of a Grab, on a café chair by the river, at the reception desk after check-in. The town is small and people are honest, so the odds are good if you move quickly and ask the right person. This guide is the lost and found routine we follow at the shop, plus what to do when the missing thing is your passport.
- The bag under the seat: a true lost and found story
- The first 30 minutes: retrace by place
- Left something on a rental bike
- Left it in a Grab or a taxi
- Hotels, cafés, boats and tailors
- Lost passport in Hoi An: police, embassy, exit visa
- Vietnamese phrases to show on your phone
- Lost or stolen: insurance and bank cards
- How not to lose things in Hoi An
- Lost and found Hoi An: FAQ
The bag under the seat: a true lost and found story
One sunny afternoon a guest brought their scooter back to our shop at 84 Phan Chau Trinh, handed over the key and walked off into the Old Town. Our team did the check every returned bike gets: fuel, mirrors, lights, then the seat goes up. Inside the storage box was a small bag that clearly wasn’t ours.
We called the guest straight away. A few minutes later they were back at the counter, relieved and laughing. Inside the bag was a camera holding every photo from their trip around Hoi An.
“I thought it was gone forever!”
It was a small moment, but it is the reason we wrote this guide. A rental shop sees forgotten things every week: sunglasses left in a helmet, a phone still clipped to the holder, a raincoat stuffed under the seat. The difference between getting them back and losing them is usually the first half hour.
We posted the moment on TikTok at the time:
The first 30 minutes: retrace by place
Before you file anything, stop and rebuild the last two or three hours. Write down every place you sat, paid or took something out of your bag. Then contact them in that order, most recent first. In Hoi An the person who finds your phone is usually a shop owner, a waiter or a driver, and they will keep it for a while, but not forever.
| Where you lost it | Who to contact first | What helps |
|---|---|---|
| Rental scooter or bicycle | The rental shop, by WhatsApp or Zalo | Your rental date and the bike’s plate or model |
| Grab car or bike | The driver, through the trip in your ride history | Do it before the driver takes the next ride |
| Metered taxi | The taxi company’s hotline | Receipt, car number, pick-up time |
| Hotel or homestay | Reception | Check the safe, the front desk drawer and the laundry bag |
| Café, restaurant, bar | The venue, ideally in person | Name of the place and the table you sat at |
| River boat, Old Town street | Your hotel reception, who can call in Vietnamese | A photo of the item if you have one |
| Passport anywhere | Ward police for that area (see №06) | A copy or photo of the passport |
Left something on a rental bike
Scooters have more hiding places than people remember. When guests contact us about a missing item, it usually turns up in one of these:
- The under-seat box. Raincoats, water bottles, chargers, and the occasional camera bag, as in the story above.
- The front glovebox or hook. Shopping bags hung on the hook under the handlebars slide off at the shop counter and get forgotten.
- The phone holder. A phone clipped in for Google Maps is the single easiest thing to walk away from.
- Inside the helmet. Sunglasses and hair clips end up in there when you take the helmet off at a stop.
- The basket. On bicycles and electric bicycles, scarves and hats blow into the corner of the basket and stay there.
If you rented from us, send a message on WhatsApp +84 935 206 306 or Zalo 0935 439 306 with your rental date and, if you know it, the bike you rode. We check returned bikes when they come in, and anything we find is kept at the shop until you collect it or tell us where to send it. If the bike was delivered to your hotel and picked up from there, tell us the hotel name too, so we can ask the driver who collected it.
If you rented somewhere else, the same message works: date, bike, what you lost. Ask the shop to send a photo of the under-seat box rather than a yes or no. It is the fastest way to settle it.
Not sure which bike suits your plans? Our motorbike rental in Hoi An page lists the full fleet, and we deliver to hotels from 30,000₫ between 7:00 and 21:00.
Left it in a Grab or a taxi
Ride-hailing is the one place where speed matters most. Drivers pick up the next passenger within minutes, and an item on the back seat can be gone with them.
With Grab: open your ride history, pick the trip, and use the in-app chat or call button to reach the driver directly. If the driver doesn’t answer, report a lost item through the Help section linked to that same trip. Menu names change between app versions, but the route is always through the trip itself, so don’t delete the app or log out. The UK government’s travel advice for Vietnam names Grab and XanhSM as the licensed apps to use, and both keep a record of the driver and plate.
With a metered taxi: keep the receipt if you got one. It carries the company name and car number. Call the company hotline printed on the car door or the receipt, give the pick-up time and drop-off address, and ask them to radio the driver.
If a driver refuses to cooperate: report it to Grab support and, for valuables, to the ward police. A lawyer quoted by Tuoi Tre newspaper noted that keeping lost property on purpose can be prosecuted in Vietnam, which is usually enough to change the tone of the conversation. It almost never comes to that.
Hotels, cafés, boats and tailors
Hotels and homestays. Vietnamese accommodation takes your passport at check-in to register you with the police, and it does not always come straight back. Before you assume a passport is lost, ask reception to check the front desk drawer and whether the night shift still has it. Then check the room safe, under the bed and the laundry bag.
Cafés and restaurants. Go back in person if you can. Staff in the Old Town tend to put found phones and wallets behind the counter and wait for the owner to return. Bring a photo of the item or describe the lock screen.
Lantern boats on the Hoai River. The boats are run by many small operators, so there is no single office to call. Go back to the spot where you boarded, in the evening when the same boats are working, and ask your hotel to phone ahead if you have the operator’s number from the ticket.
Tailors. A surprising number of jackets go missing between the fitting room and the pick-up bag. Tailors in Hoi An keep their orders labelled by name and date, so call the shop with your order details.
Still nothing after a day? The Da Nang Tourist Support Centre runs a hotline for visitors at +84 236 3550 111. Since Hoi An became part of Da Nang City on 1 July 2025, it covers Hoi An too. It can’t search for your item, but it can tell you which office to go to and help when there is a language barrier.
Lost passport in Hoi An: police, embassy, exit visa
A lost passport is the one case where the lost and found routine turns into paperwork. Spend the first few hours searching (hotel desk, rental shop, the last café), then follow three steps in this order. Skip one and the next office will send you back.
Step 1: police report at the ward where you lost it
You need a confirmation of loss from the local ward police for the place where the passport went missing. The Australian Embassy is clear that the report must come from that local station and cannot be filed in another location, and Vietnamese Immigration accepts only a Vietnamese police report.
Here is the local detail most guides miss. Since the 2025 administrative merger, Hoi An is split into three wards and one commune, and each ward has its own police station:
| If you lost it around… | Ward (phường) | Ask for |
|---|---|---|
| The Old Town, Minh An, Cam Pho, Son Phong, Cam Nam, Cam Kim | Hoi An | Công an phường Hội An |
| Cua Dai beach, Cam Chau, Cam Thanh (coconut village) | Hoi An Dong | Công an phường Hội An Đông |
| An Bang beach, Cam An, Tan An, Thanh Ha (pottery village), Cam Ha | Hoi An Tay | Công an phường Hội An Tây |
| Cham Islands | Tan Hiep commune | Công an xã Tân Hiệp |
So a passport lost on the sand at An Bang is a Hoi An Tay report, not a Hoi An one. Type the ward name into Google Maps, which already shows the new ward names, and go in person with any photo ID you have, plus a copy or phone photo of the passport. Ask for two stamped copies: one for your embassy, one for your insurer.
Step 2: emergency travel document from your embassy
Almost every embassy is in Hanoi, and many countries also have a Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City. Central Vietnam has fewer options: Korea and China, for example, run consulates-general in Da Nang. Check your own government’s website for the nearest office and book an appointment, as walk-ins rarely work. Emergency documents are usually valid for the journey home, not for continuing a long trip.
Step 3: exit visa from Vietnamese Immigration
This is the step that catches people out. Your visa or visa-exemption stamp was inside the lost passport, and it does not transfer to the new document. Vietnamese Immigration has to issue a new visa or exit permit before you can board an international flight. In central Vietnam, the immigration office of the Da Nang City Police is at 78 Le Loi, Hai Chau, Da Nang; ask your embassy whether they want you to file there or in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. At the time of writing the fee for a single-entry visa is about US$25, and processing takes several working days.
Read more about deposits in our guide on leaving your passport when you rent a bike.
Vietnamese phrases to show on your phone
English is hit and miss at a ward police station. Screenshot this table and hold your phone across the counter; it works better than a translation app in a noisy room.
| English | Vietnamese |
|---|---|
| I lost my passport. | Tôi bị mất hộ chiếu. |
| My bag was stolen. | Tôi bị mất cắp túi xách. |
| I left my phone in the car. | Tôi để quên điện thoại trên xe. |
| Lost passport report | Đơn trình báo mất hộ chiếu |
| Confirmation of lost passport | Giấy xác nhận mất hộ chiếu |
| Ward police | Công an phường |
| Can you call for me, please? | Anh/chị gọi giúp tôi được không? |
Lost or stolen: insurance and bank cards
Police treat a lost item and a stolen one differently, and so does your insurer. A loss gets a confirmation; a theft gets a complaint that lists what was taken. Be honest about which it was, because the wrong report causes trouble later.
- Tell your insurer within a day or two. Most policies set a deadline and want the police report.
- Freeze cards from your banking app the moment a wallet is gone. You can unfreeze if it turns up.
- List everything at the counter. Phone, cards, cash, the bag itself. Adding items afterwards is much harder.
- Change passwords if a phone or laptop is missing, starting with email and banking.
Theft against tourists in Hoi An is rare compared with big cities, but bag snatching from passing motorbikes does happen across Vietnam. Carry your bag on the side away from the traffic. Our guide on whether it’s safe to ride a motorbike in Hoi An covers the road side of staying safe.
How not to lose things in Hoi An
The best lost and found story is the one that never happens. A few habits cover nearly every case we see.
- Original in the safe, copy in your bag. The UK government’s Vietnam advice says the authorities accept a printed copy of your passport photo page and visa as ID. Keep a phone photo too.
- Never leave your passport as a rental deposit. The same advice warns travellers not to hand passports to rental shops as a guarantee, because they can be held against claimed damage. At Anh Khoa we ask for a photo of your passport or a 2,000,000₫ cash deposit, and the original stays with you.
- Do a 10-second check before you hand back a bike. Seat up, phone holder, front hook, helmet. Say it out loud if it helps.
- Split money and cards. One card in your wallet, one in the hotel safe.
- Photograph the plate. A quick photo of your Grab, taxi or rental bike’s plate makes any later search much faster.
Need a bike from a shop that checks under the seat?
We deliver to your hotel in Hoi An from 30,000₫, with two helmets, a free litre of petrol on fuel bikes and 24/7 roadside help. Over 300 bikes, from 50cc scooters to manual bikes.
WhatsApp +84 935 206 306See bikes & prices
Zalo 0935 439 306 · Roadside 24/7: +84 766 766 087 · 84 Phan Chau Trinh, Hoi An
Bikes Rental
Lost and found Hoi An: FAQ
Is there a lost and found office in Hoi An?
No, there is no central lost and found office. Go back to the place where you last had the item, or ask your hotel to call for you in Vietnamese. For documents such as a passport, go to the ward police for the area where you lost it. The Da Nang Tourist Support Centre hotline, +84 236 3550 111, can point you to the right office.
Where do I report a lost passport in Hoi An?
At the ward police station for the place where you lost it. The Old Town is Hoi An ward, Cua Dai and Cam Thanh are Hoi An Dong, and An Bang, Cam An and Thanh Ha are Hoi An Tay. A report filed in Da Nang for a passport lost in Hoi An will not be accepted by Immigration.
How long does it take to leave Vietnam after losing a passport?
Plan on one to two weeks. You need a police report, then an emergency travel document from your embassy, then a new visa or exit permit from Vietnamese Immigration. Holidays and weekends add time, so don’t rebook your flight until the exit visa is issued.
I left something in a Grab. What should I do?
Open your ride history, select the trip and contact the driver through the in-app chat or call button as soon as possible. If there is no reply, report a lost item through the Help section for that trip.
Does Anh Khoa keep my passport as a rental deposit?
No. We take a photo of your passport or a 2,000,000₫ cash deposit, and you keep the original passport with you for the whole rental.
I forgot something on a bike I rented from you. How do I get it back?
Message us on WhatsApp +84 935 206 306 or Zalo 0935 439 306 with your rental date and the bike you rode. We check returned bikes, keep anything we find at the shop at 84 Phan Chau Trinh, and arrange pick-up or delivery with you.
Updated October 2026. Lost passport steps follow guidance from the Australian Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City and the UK government’s Vietnam travel advice. Ward names follow the administrative merger effective 1 July 2025. Fees and office procedures change; confirm with your embassy and the immigration office before you file. This page is general information, not legal advice. See also: what to do at a police stop in Hoi An and our rental terms.
Pick your ride in Hoi AnChọn xe cho chuyến đi Hội An
Scooters, electric bikes and bicycles from one shop in the Old Town — delivered to your hotel, helmets and roadside help included.Xe máy, xe điện và xe đạp — giao tận khách sạn, kèm hai nón bảo hiểm và hỗ trợ dọc đường.
Not sure which one fits? Message us on WhatsApp and we’ll recommend a bike for your plans.
Chưa biết chọn xe nào? Nhắn Zalo 0935 439 306, tụi mình tư vấn theo lịch trình của bạn.