Holidaymakers were saved from an eight-hour flight delay after a fault on their plane was fixed by a passenger.

It is often said that the last place you look for lost property is inevitably where you’ll find it. Until now, the internet has not been the first (or indeed the last) place air travellers look for their lost luggage. The launch of website isthisyourluggage.com means that your lost luggage in all its glory may be posted on the internet for all to see.

British woman, Luna Laboo has launched the website in a bid to help reunite travellers with their lost luggage. The website features a series of bags which the user clicks on to reveal the contents within. Pictures of a kinky nurse’s outfit, dirty socks and sexy undies - all lost in transit - have been posted online so far. The advice of your mother to always pack plenty of clean underwear has never been more relevant!

Laboo purchases the lost luggage at airline auctions, which are held regularly by airlines to clear out their stores of lost luggage once all reasonable methods to find the owner have been exhausted. Ms Laboo said the idea for her website came to her six months ago after hearing about luggage going missing at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 in London. At the time, about 20,000 bags had been lost in the system.

Some may see this site as strange new breed of voyeurism, whilst others view Laboo as the ultimate good samaritan. Our members are divided on the issue. Some find it rather creepy that a complete stranger can purchase your personal effects and place the contents online, whilst others have found the logic in the situation and argue that most of luggage would be technically owned by insurance companies if they had paid out on traveller’s claims. One member is sceptical about the airlines policy of selling lost luggage and believes that few peoples luggage would not have some identifying markers on it.

Laboo is yet to reunite any of the owners with the luggage but she has states she is looking forward to acquiring more suitcases.

We've written about numerous no-frills hotels before, but it's just possible a new hotel in Switzerland may offer the fewest frills we've seen. That's because it's set up in an air-raid shelter, and it dispenses with nearly all the amenities hotel guests typically take for granted.

Located in the Sevelen commune in the St. Gallen canton of Switzerland, the Zero Star Hotel is essentially a low-budget hostel in which guests sleep in a shared, barracks-style room. Walls are concrete, there are no windows or heating—hot water bottles are all that's on hand to keep guests warm—and hot water itself is at a minimum. Beds range from bunks to more traditional double accommodations reclaimed from a nearby hotel that recently shut down, and guests must take turns showering in a communal bathroom. A live-cam broadcasting images from outside is the closest thing to a view. Flowers and scattered artwork supplied by artist-twins and founders Frank and Patrik Riklin of the Atelier für Sonderaufgaben are the only embellishments to the spartan, military style of the bunker, which must, by Swiss law, be convertible back to military use within 24 hours. Fifteen guests spent an inaugural night at the hotel in October, but it won't be available for public use until early this year. Rates will be between EUR 6 and EUR 16 per night, its founders say.

As belts tighten ever more, consumers may well be satisfied with fewer and fewer frills—particularly when presented in an artistic and creative way that creates a unique experience and provides rich storytelling fodder to share with friends. One to bring to a bunker near you....?

www.null-stern-hotel.ch

A Briton who lent five pounds ($A11) to a cash-strapped Australian while travelling through Europe has had his loan repaid - nearly 40 years later.