The FT [Mod Edit: Financial Times] published a a quite light piece which sees various famous people (including Marie Kondo and Anthony Scaramucci) give out tips on how to pack for/during a business trip.

I was skimming through it while sipping on my coffee this morning, and thought that the “pro tip” to put one shoe in the hotel safe to make sure you don’t forget your belongings in the morning is both potentially quite clever and somewhat unhygienic (unless the shoe is wrapped in a plastic bag).

Turns out this specific advice was shared by Sean Doyle who got it from BA cabin crew. I thought I’d share as I’m sure the FT [Mod Edit: FlyerTalk] community will benefit from these insights into BA’s CEO’s travel guidance!


Source: https://on.ft.com/3JQgv1g

I was taught - some 40 years ago, that you should keep your shoes right by the bed and with the room key in it. Why? Because of the risk of a hotel fire and the straightforward risk that bare feet face in fire scenarios. I vaguely feel that hotel fires are less prevalent, but that's evidence-free, but I'm certainly able to recall some horrific previous events. Having the room key in your shoes means that given it's likely to be a false alarm, you can get back to the room faster.

When traveling alone on business, one should always find an appropriate lady/gentleman/other to share your room with as it doubles your chance of waking up should there be a fire or other emergency.

A shoe in the safe was so that you didn’t leave anything in it, I left my tie instead.

The best thing to do IMO is simply not to use the safe. You are far more likely to leave something in there by mistake than have it stolen from your room.

Now admittedly I don't travel with anything high value like jewellery that may warrant extra protection, but as far as passport and wallet are concerned, I am comfortable leaving them in my bag rather than the risk/faff of locking them in the safe.

I definitely hadn�t considered the fire/emergency angle, in which case I agree that the safe is probably the worst place you could leave a shoe in! The tie is a great alternative, and I�d think that something like a toothbrush might work too?

I actually tend to only use the safe if I�m out of the room (dinner/etc). On my last night I basically empty it into my backpack before going to bed which has worked so far, but going for breakfast is an edge case I don�t have a good solution for.

Willie Sutton said he robbed banks because "that's where the money is". Were I to want to steal something from a hotel room, I would go to the safe first. Their security is pretty illusory, partly due to poor implementation (search the internet) and partly because the hotel obviously needs a way to unlock them if the guest checks out leaving them locked. Door security has historically been just as bad. All you are doing is putting off the opportunist, which can easily be done by not leaving your blingy Rolex (or whatever) out on the desk.

When I stay in hotels anywhere I keep my Passport if applicable, wallet, cash, keys in a small bag (like a shoe bag/CW style bag with a drawstring) and sleep with it by my side so in the event of any emergency that's all I would grab should I ever have needed to make a harp, sharp exit as well as keeping my shoes at the door. As a Scotsman (but as a proud Brit) as it has cash in it there's no way I would leave any money behind!

Otherwise I use a room safe whilst out during the day.

Once, years ago on the outbound I left my Son's Sony PSP in a side bin on the UD of a 747. Never ever found despite reporting it before immigration so it's worth checking side bins on aircraft where you might have one (A380) or even put a shoe in there!

I thought about leaving the CSD�s tie in the safe a couple of times, even though I had nothing in it�..

Being tight-fisted I tend to book hotels that don't have safes in their rooms. My missus refuses to use them anyway.

Archived version for those who can't read due to paywall: https://archive.ph/hS0lm

Thanks, OP! Great read!

Yes, I agree that a locked hotel safe's basically says "please try this first". Hotel safes vary but some have a default PIN, reset between visits or after a guest has forgotten their PIN. If you look at the wear / grime on the keypad, you can work out what that default is. Clearly I have too much time on my hands.

I like this idea. I have forgotten things in the safe on check-out. On the other hand, I have found the safe inoperable -- because of a dead battery, some technical failure, or maybe I just mis-typed my usual combination when I closed it -- and had to wait for "the one guy in Security who has access, accompanied by the duty manager" to open it for me when I had a flight to catch.

My favorite hotel safe was in a hotel in Dublin. It was lightweight and not secured to anything. Very convenient if you wanted to pick up your valuables in an emergency but also rather handy for a thief. I suppose the best use was to put some non-valuables in it and hope that a thief would just take it and not look elsewhere.

hmmm i am gonna keep one shoe in the safe but all valuables in the other shoe!