Travel review: Tech for the forgetful traveller

Tile luggage locator.

The space beneath a hotel bed is one of the most mysterious known to man.

It ranks somewhere between the back of the sofa and the Bermuda Triangle for its ability to swallow belongings without trace.

This is particularly the case on holiday, with a taxi idling on the hotel forecourt and precariously little time to reach the airport. Instead of cursing the extra half hour you spent at the poolside and tearing up the room you were supposed to be checked out of already, there is another solution: a Bluetooth tracker called Tile.

Panic and late night call to the locksmiths averted. All thanks to this small, square inch of mysterious black box, shrunk to fit on to a keyring.

Tile is a high-tech solution for the forgetful traveller. It keeps track of your belongings with the aid of a smartphone app and a merry tune — one that serenades your searching back to the heyday of early 2000s Nokia ringtones.

Using Bluetooth you can track down the Tile keyring within a 200ft range.

It's a neat idea, well-executed and it seems there's a crowd of people who would agree.

Logging into the smartphone app, I can see 2895 equally forgetful users are within the vicinity. Which is just as well — as part of what makes it such a useful bit of tech is the ability to crowd-source help from other Tile users.

Somewhat melodramatically, you have the ability to "set up a search party". Within seconds you can have half of Christchurch searching on your behalf for your misplaced camera bag. Or, at least anyone with the app and a good signal for their handset.

Having got over the embarrassment of advertising my inability to keep track of my belongings to thousands of strangers, I was quickly updated by the app:
"Your camera's location was found by the community, say thanks!"

TILE: Tech for the forgetful traveller
RRP NZ$59.99 or NZ$109.99 for a pack of two from most high street electronics stores.