we will be staying in a hotel that does not provide a safe. any suggestions for a pseudo safe?

maybe a new business with a new product. don't really have much valuable, just a pain if the crummy video camera and the crummy p&s get taken.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

You mean that, in addition to not offering in-room safes, the hotel also does not offer safe-deposit boxes at the front desk?

pacsafe.com has a variety of mesh tavel safes in different sizes.

I bought a Travelsafe 12L Portable Safe for my Italy trip last year. We had planned several days from Naples south and eventually through Sicily between hotels where all our stuff would be in the car. Had read lots of online comments about potential car theft in those areas, so wanted to lock up our computer, ipad, etc.

It worked well and provided a little peace of mind, though not sure how big the threat really was? But I like the travelsafe and am now bringing it with me on all trips - locking up all my stuff and then putting the whole bag inside the hotel safe (and some safes have a metal loop you can thread the travelsafe wire through). I also changed out the travelsafe lock for something more robust.

I have found this to be true a couple times in my travels. Most recently, at a newly renovated and re-branded Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza in the Northern New Jersey-NYC area in March 2012.

Even though there was the standard notice posted in the room about getting a safe deposit box at the front desk to store valuables, there was no safe deposit to be had in the room or at the front desk! The manager at the front desk apologized for not having these, as I wanted to get one.

In these situations, I was advised that there is no law requiring these, as these are simply a convenience and amenity to hotel guests where available.

Therefore, I wound up carrying items with me during my 4 night stay in the NYC-NJ area that I would have preferred to have kept in a safe deposit in my hotel.

Not in a million years would I stay at such a place. The bad guys most certainly know that there are no safes and that anything they encounter is "pseudo" at best.

If you wanted to burglarize hotel rooms would you select a place with no safes or one with safes?

Of course, this presumes no front desk safety deposit boxes.

The items almost certainly would have been safer on the bed in your hotel room than they were being carried around the city.

How does that work; do you loop the chain around the desk leg or something like you'd do for a bike? Otherwise, you seem to be making a nice "to go" bag for the thiefs.

You need to find something that can't easily be moved to attach the chain to. Like here in the office where there are two laptop cables looped around a desk leg, but you can lift the desk and they just fall off.

The few times I've anchored something it's either been to the bed frame, which has the added benefit of keeping it out of sight.

Don't sweat it. Put the items in your suitcase or a carry-on bag. Put the bag in a closet or cabinet if possible. Just get it out of sight and not super easy to swipe. You don't want the hotel coming back at you with "well, if you just leave valuables out in the open ....".

Otherwise, if someone wants your crummy equipment they will get it. I'd be more worried about my passport. I'd deposit that at the front desk if traveling to a riskier country.

Till

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.

I've been doing this for over a decade of travel to Asia and have never had a problem. I put my electronics in a suitcase, lock it, and shift it out of temptation's way. If there's an in-room safe I'll use it but I seldom even bother with front desk boxes.

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

I wonder if they'd let you carry it on. Probably it would be considered a blunt object--after all, it makes one h... of a weapon if you need one

Depending on what state the hotel is in, the hotel is taking a big risk. Although not required to provide them by law, the innkeeper laws in many states protect the hotel from being responsible for items stolen from guest rooms ONLY if they provide free safe deposit boxes at the front desk. That's why even the lowest, least-amenity-providing roadside motels almost always provide free safe deposit boxes at the front desk: by doing so, they invoke the protection of state law against being responsible for in-room thefts.