mules

OP- you may find some peace of mind on your next trip if you use something like the Pascafe Travelsafe inside the hotel room safe. It won't deter someone from taking the whole pouch but it would deter someone very sneaky like the thief you had before. I understand why you are still upset. It is not just the money but someone unauthorized entering the room and violating your trust.

http://www.pacsafe.com/travelsafe-5l-portable-safe.html

84fiero

Agreed!

Well of course not, nor did I say it did - obviously this is true only if the signage is in accordance with the actual law.

However in many places there are laws limiting liability and such is properly posted in the guest rooms - in fact, in some locations it's a violation for the hotel to not post certain lodging laws in the guest room.

coachrowsey

This.

rankourabu

This is why I keep money in my dirty underewar/socks and/or in my laundry bag, and not in the hotel safe

nrr

I would want to know HOW the safe was compromised. If there is some "easy to defeat" flaw with room safes in general, then NO room safe is safe; it was NOT opened using a "crow bar"--he noted a monetary shortage after he opened it in the usual way [via his self selected combination.]

SIA747Megatop

Would it be safer to keep valuables in a locked suitcase rather than the hotel safe?

nrr

It's probably easier to steal the suitcase than a wall safe.

Tennet1979

What country was this in?

jphripjah

Let me get this straight. We have thread after thread here where people are discussing compensation from a hotel for minor inconveniences, like "the front desk called my room at 3 a.m. and woke me up," "the maintenance department opened my door and said 'sorry' and closed the door," "the front desk girl gave me attitude," etc. Then discussions ensue about how many points and/or free nights this should be worth.

Now we have someone who was the victim of a serious crime, perpetrated by a hotel employee who violated the guest's privacy and who not only entered the guest's room but opened a locked safe containing the guest's most personal documents and valuables, and stole some of them, causing distress and great inconvenience to the guest, and all anyone here can say is "You're lucky you got your cash back, why would you ask for anything else?"

I think this is the sort of situation where the hotel should be proactive and not just have offered the money back with an apology, but also offered a free weekend or points or something like that.

Esltroy

This^^^

I was fortunate to win a rather large jackpot of money on my last trip to Colorado.

I ended up with a large check and a few thousand in cash. I am not a drug dealer or a stripper-so I was not used to traveling with so much money. The hotel where I was staying didn't have a safe in the room, so I put it in the safe deposit box behind the front desk. I was able to have my own key. But, I was nervous because there were signs everywhere that the hotel was only responsible for 200.00 if items were lost or damaged. I was nervousness until I was able to get the money into my bank account at home.

Jeannietx

One thought about future trips is to not have more cash then you believe you will need. Hit the ATM when needed, and don't keep a lot of cash on hand.

I feel the OP was very fortunate that first, the hotel and then the police took the theft seriously. Even luckier that the person was caught and the hotel took responsibility and sent the OP the amount that was stolen. End of story.

Steve M

In most US states, the posted limitation of liability is a quote of the relevant state law, which really does limit the hotel's liability for valuables stolen from the guest rooms. In most states, there is zero liability for theft from guest rooms, even from a locked in-room safe, as long as there is a free safe deposit box offered at the front desk. That's why virtually every hotel and motel in the US, including even the lowest-end ones, offers free safe deposit boxes at the front desk.

Speaking about the electronic keypad ones, it depends on the model. Some require a special device to be connected. Others can be opened with just a long master password entered into the keypad. In either case, it's incumbent on hotel management to a) set the master password to something other than the factory default, and b) make sure that that password doesn't fall into the wrong hands. It would not surprise me that at many properties, they have models where there's just a master password required, and where it's not been changed from the factory default. In that case, it's not too difficult to imagine that an unauthorized person could gain access to the safes. There are also methods to make it easier to guess what the password the guest might have entered is.

But there's another thing: most of these models will keep an internal transaction log of each time the safe was opened, and when the master password was used. It would not surprise me in this case if someone pulled that log from the safe, and matched it up with the log in the keycard lock on the door. The keycard lock should clearly show when the guest entered, when they left, and when the maid entered with their passkey. If the safe was opened shortly after the maid entered, then it's pretty obvious who did it.

mike2200

I think you missed OPs last sentence, he wanted people's opinions and that is what he has/is getting

nrr

All the ones I've used require a 4 digit pin [which you select]. Out of curiosity after I locked the (room) safe, I tried entering codes like 0000, 2222 etc., but as soon as I hit the 4th digit an error message appeared--I think the safes I've encountered need a special electronic device to open them.

Jaimito Cartero

I'd guess there could be confusion on terminology. I have never seen a safe deposit box in a room. Safe deposit box is where you have at least two keys to open it, one user key, one management key.

The safes (Often El Safe, or other fairly inexpensive electronic keypad safes), are a simple 4 to 8 digit user selected number. There is a management bypass code on all models I've seen.

What's even more amusing is when these aren't even bolted down to anything. I wouldn't feel secure putting more than a few hundred in there, even if bolted correctly.