why are fairmonts safes sssssssssoooooooo safe?

Once in Thailand, checked into my room to find the safe locked from the previous guest. Someone from security and the hotel management came to the room with a plug in device with a keypad . Had to sign several forms , and the safe was opened - there was nothing in it.

In Pretoria, the room had a very strange locking mechanism, I got it wrong and couldn't figure how to open it. Hotel said it would take an hour for an engineer to arrive to open the safe, and it did.

Since the 0000 story came to light I've periodically checked - never worked!

I'm puzzled too as to why they would be any safer than other hotels? They have always seemed to be bog standard room safes unless I am misremebering.

At one hotel I stayed at last year (don't recall which one), the instruction card found on top of the in-room safe contained all the expected information (how to program the safe to lock and unlock), but also gave instructions on what to do if one forgot their personal code (Input 000000 to open the safe, press reset, then input a new personal code). :o

I tried it by programming with my own code, locked the safe, and reopened it using 000000. Needless to say, I did not use the safe.

In my 250+ room nights in the past 9 years at Fairmont, I've never had one safe incident.

Other hotels, I'm very mindful of valuables.

But I'd guess any number of travellers on here could say the same about their chosen brands too. I'd say it was pretty rare to have a 'safe incident', whether it is losing your key, forgetting your code etc. or some form of theft. Fairmonts are no different from any other chain hotels.

In fact, 10 second search for Fairmont, Safe and Theft threw up: "Long story short, we had about $8000 in Pesos and $100.00 USD stolen from out in-room safe at the Fairmont [Mayakoba], and they said it was not their responsibility"

Why is this needless to say? I would have thought you wouldn't have used it... :confused:

i have spent a whole lot more nights in hotels than that, from motel 8- to 5*+++ and never had a safe incident. only stayed in one fairmant. did not have an incident there, either.

I have spent many many nights (hundreds and hundreds) in hotel all over the world and never once have I used the in room safe. Never saw a need for them, and always thought of them as quaint and old fashioned, used primarily by the same crowd that is still using travelers checks.

Sometime you don't want to lug your valuable goods and documents with you all over a city. I don't find that quaint. Do you?

With my trip coming up, I have wondered what I will do with some of my valuables. I never really liked using hotel safes as I have heard about the default code trick. But most of the trip, will be a beach trip. So while for the most part I will want to carry it with me, what do I do in the cases where I am at the beach. Is leaving it at the front desk the best choice of action?

I've stayed at the Fairmont Mayakoba and did not have a safe incident there. With documents and valuables, I haven't ever checked but perhaps the front desk has a lock drawer or what not.

Funny how as soon as alot of money is thrown into the safe, all of a sudden its gone.. unless a pattern is established, who knows whether money was deposited in the safe or not, or safes are actually being broken into on a consistent basis.

Just to make sure I understand - because no one ever stole from the safe your valuables were placed in, you're implying everyone who ever reported theft must be faking it?

Even if the staff does change the default code once, it wouldn't be too difficult for a maid to try a large number of combinations over time, especially if it's a 4 digit code.
Anyway, this isn't the only obvious hotel safe issue. I've encountered at least 1 safe that had an internal reset button easily accessible from outside...

Im not implying that everyone who has ever reported a theft must be faking it.. I'm saying that its odd to have money dissappearing on a one-off basis if there isn't a pattern of theft established. Whether the theft is genuine or not, I'm not making this conclusion.

Originally Posted by jerry305:

Found one!
I tried the technique shown in the video noted by the OP. Same experience for me: I programmed my own code, locked the safe, came back a minute later, entered 000000... and it opened anyway. 000000 worked against any code.



Well, yeah... I'd hope this problem isn't very common. It's 1 hotel out of many for me.

Keep tryin' though... feel free to share with me any left-behind loot you happen to find.