Originally Posted by
slawecki
in barcelona, the safe was locked when we arrived. called front desk. they told us to perform some sequence(i don't remember but wife does) involving enter "0000" twice. safe opened. when in venice, tried the same thing and it worked. as long as one can remember 0000, and the rest of the sequence, seems one can open hotel safes.
if i carred something valuable, like my AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK FORGED CARBON MENS WATCH, i would put it in one of those mesh steel bags, get an ongard u shaped bicycle lock, and attatch it to the plumbing( a water pipe with no shut off valve), or to the steering column of a rental car(course, then the car would be taken).
http://www.onguardlock.com/?page_id=329
i have a bike wheel with one of these locks on it. i'm taking it down to a neighbors to have him cut it with a torch.
Knowing what you know about the safe combo I would simply not use a hotel room safe for valuables in this category. And I certainly wouldn't come up with a u-lock/mesh bag contraption that is visible and calls attention to the item. I'd either wear the watch (fellow watch nerd here) or check it in at the front desk with receipt.
When using a room safe also make sure you give a quick wipe over the buttons after locking it. With good light and a bit of training one can see which buttons were last used to enter the code. This makes it much easier to limit the possible combinations. If the safe has the technical possibility to be used with a magnet stripe on a card, do that instead of the keypad. But if it has the technical possibility to be opened with an override code (not a physical key or card), I would regard that safe as pretty useless because that code will be known to more than one or two people in the hotel.
Till