I think the other posters have given you very good advice, particularly if you stay in a *** or better hotel. Overseas, I have found the inroom safes a little bigger and my laptop has always fit. In the US I have used the Kensington cable my company provides with the basic laptop kit.

Your Amex will probably not cover your laptop. Your homeowner's insurance might, but only if you tell them that the laptop is not used for business purposes.

Last month at a H***ton near NASA in Houston, we came out and found an entire row of rental cars had been broken into. Thieves used a puller to remove the driver's door lock and then used the interior trunk release to open about 8 cars one right after the other. Glad your laptop wasn't in that parking lot!