1. See if you can get an idea from the hotel about how many of the rooms are occupied, and if it's a small number see if it's possible to get that list.
2. Give each person in housekeeping $10, and ask them to tell you if they see any of your stuff in the rooms they're cleaning.
3. Focus on rooms with the do-not-disturb signs hung up if it's a limited number. You know that somebody is staying on those rooms, and that they prefer privacy. While this doesn't mean they took your stuff, it helps locate the rooms with patrons.
4. Write down the license plates of the cars in the lot (if it's not an overwhelming number). If there's one way for vehicles to leave the property, you could wait by the exit and ask drivers as they leave if they know anything. If the driver stops, you'll get a read on their response. You can also write down license plates based on how drivers handle this (whether they stop, how they react, etc.) and cross-reference this against the ones you recorded from the parking lot.
5. Check the trash. Sometimes people steal things, get scared, then dump whatever they've stolen.
Good luck to you. The odds aren't in your favor.
Edit: Assuming you can find it on the network, that is. Good luck; hope you can get it back.
You could also try a tool that maps an IP to location e.g. http://www.geoiptool.com/ - these aren't particularly accurate too be honest
Edit: If you know the Laptop is running a server e.g. SSH you could try scanning the network for the local IP of the laptop with nmap.
e.g. nmap -A 192.168.1.*
(With the '-A' option, machines will also attempt to be fingerprinted, to determine their OS etc, to start with it may be better running without '-A' as it takes a fair bit longer)
I also always install Microsoft's Live Mesh on my machines, which is helpful for remote login if one has gone missing. Free. (https://www.mesh.com/)
We had him on camera, multiple witnesses. Our security found the ebay account where they were being sold and even tricked the guy into providing his address. We provided this to the police. All they would have had to do is go arrest him, but they wouldn't lift a finger.
Conversely, I worked for a bank for a year. And one night the ATM alarm was accidentally tripped, and the police where there in minutes with guns out.
The ATM only had about $10K in it, and the fourteen laptops represented a loss of $30k.
Q: So why was there response so much more aggressive for the ATM?
A: The banks pay big $$ to the local police departments to get that kind of response.
The guy who stole these 14 laptops should get arrested, go to prison, then come out and become a best selling author on the topic of Social Engineering (which means he'll sell 1,000 copies, but still, a good use of his craft).
That being said, did it really represent a gross loss of $30k? A $2k laptop is worth $1,200 the moment you open the box. Were they old laptops? Mostly depreciated? $10k in an ATM is always worth $10k.
The laptops were all less than a year old. But you could easily argue the loss value was less than their purchase value. However we still had to spend $30K to replace them all.
The data on the laptops also wasn't worthless. Thankfully the guy was just an ebay/thief and not interested in selling our sourcecode.
So I can say that it's definetely worth putting your name and number on a paper card in your laptop bag.
I suggest putting up signs offering a $200 cash no questions asked reward if the laptop is returned to the hotel front desk. Perhaps hotel management can knock on doors for you announcing the reward.
If you want to then take the laptop to the police and have it dusted for fingerprints that is your decision.
Most petty thieves just want cash and if the laptop isn't already sold it will probably be sold in the next day or two for $200 or less in cash.
They might take a report but won't spend an ounce of energy looking otherwise, even if you have the IP.
Then again it's Canada so maybe they are less lazy/corrupt than US cops.
Let's be more realistic and compare them to the slackers found at every kind job. But now imagine those slackers with supremely dangerous amounts of authority that are constantly abused and no-one can challenge, co-workers that will cover their ass no matter how big the lie, really good pay, really good benefits, incredible overtime pay, insane early retirement pay (while they work other jobs) and it's nearly impossible to be fired once hired.
The one thing you know is that the mail reader is still running. Working on the assumption that it can't hurt, maybe craft a mail to the account to either fool the thief into installing software like Prey discussed on other comments here or to fool the thief into telling you where he or she is.
For the first one, just send out a mail saying something like "Click this link to install HOT VIRTUAL PORN". Make it look like the average spam mail (though not spammy enough to get filtered). Obviously you would need to repackage the Prey installer as some sort of porn software installer, which may be easy or hard depending on how silent the original installer is.
For the second one, post a Craigslist or equivalent ad offering to buy a laptop computer like your friend's. Then send a mail to your friend's account as yourself saying "hey, I saw this ad and I know you're looking to unload that old laptop of yours, so thought you would be interested".
If people fall for Nigerian 419 scammers, maybe your thief will fall for this. Assuming he's reading your e-mail.
Alternatively, do you have full coverage on your car? If so, just call your insurance company and tell them what happened; they'll probably work something out with the hotel.
Other ideas: (I think) some credit cards cover theft if you use them for travel expenses and stuff is stolen while travelling.
The last thing you should be doing is tracking the down the items and trying to recover them yourself by force.
If you have the MAC address and think it is still in the local area, you can definitely use a tool like kismet to look for it.
Hotel was of little help, and police don't do much except write down the S/N and alert the local pawn shops not to buy the machine.
Best bet is homeowner's or renter's insurance. Most policies will cover something like this. If you're in school, your (his) parents' coverage usually extends to cover your belongings. I have the basic $15/mo type coverage from State Farm - the kind that reduces your car insurance payment by more than $15/mo under their multi-policy discount - and they replaced my 3 year old MBP no-questions-asked.
Have you talked to the hotel staff? I'm sure theft is something they are used to dealing with. If no response from them, maybe you could call the hotel corporate HQ. It's a long shot, but maybe the hotel can reimburse through insurance. Also if you have a credit card sometimes they will provide limited travel insurance.
A number of things you could do to facilitate recovering the property, such as entering someone else's hotel room without permission are illegal, though a defense of necessity might be available. I've never heard of it being a crime to take back the property itself.
That's about what I would expect a police officer to say. At least, that's what they say here in San Francisco. Then you file a report, and make an insurance claim. Do you have a friend at the ISP they use who could sort through some logs for you so that you could go and retrieve it yourself? That's probably your best bet for getting your property back, and that's quite the long shot.
