Originally Posted by
mgobluetex
I believe that your experience is more the exception, not the norm. What happened to your safe is rare and that could happen anywhere at anytime. In my experience, these hotel safe's are safe. I've never had a problem with them but as the PP said, if it's not secured to a wall or to something it's not as secure as it could be. Bottom line, never leave all of your valuables in one place whether it be a safe or a suitcase.
Sure, my experience was more the exception than the norm. However this is true for theft in hotels in general! As pointed out by many in this thread, occasional theft by hotel personnel is also the most frequent one. This is easily protected against by having a suitcase with a lock on it and your valuables inside. Can you imagine a hotel maid walking away with a suitcase? It's all about not creating the opportunity, and in fact, even if you do, I can tell by experience that most times, absolutely nothing happens.
However, if "professional" thieves do target your room, as unlikely this may be, the safe will be the first (if not the only) thing they will take care of. As I know at least three people with this experience (none of us lost really important stuff, as a matter of fact), it is not even that unlikely. It also seems to depend on which countries you travel to.