Room safe
 

Do you leave valuables in an in-room safe? Or just hide in luggage? By valuables I mean things like a laptop, not a 15 carat diamond .

There have been a couple of accounts here of people getting their valuable jewelry ripped off from the room safes. In those cases, it was a 4* Paris hotel.

My question is whether people perceive the safes as better than other in-room alternatives. No doubt just about anything can broken into.

Only at extreme luxury hotels has my laptop ever fit into the room safe. I have an 11" screen, but the room safe in my un-luxury experience rarely fits an item more than 8" square. Putting your laptop in it is a nice idea, but just not an option.

Cable lock your laptop to the furniture instead.

I've never seen a room safe hat is large enough for a laptop.

Last hotel we were in the room safe wasn't attached, it could be picked up and taken. But it could be locked.

For a laptop, get a locking cable and lock it to the mattress frame or TV bracket or something that can't easily be moved out. Kensington has many of them, they are under $50.

Another option is to carry a subnotebook on trips. I now leave my Kensington cable at home and take my Toshiba Libretto L1 with me. Not only is it light, but measures 7" by 10.5" with a comfortably-sized keyboard. Fits into any safe I've ever run into in a hotel room.

I have often wondered about this as well...
 

I have seen in-room safes of all sizes, shapes, and appearances of "safety" or otherwise. The large ones big enough to hold laptops do exist! Since I often work out in hotel gyms, I often face the choice of using them or not. For whatever reason, I tend to trust the ones with electronic codes and I have never had anything go missing. However, once I had a problem reopening one (at a luxury property in Latin America) and was forced to ask the hotel staff to open it. They were able to do this with a master key, even though the battery in the electronic safe had died. The hotel manager simply pulled back a sticker on the outside of the safe to expose a keyhole. Now, I always keep an eye out for such stickers but have yet to see another similar safe in the US or Europe.

I wonder about the security of those "safes", although I carry an IBM X21, it never fits in the small space provided.

So, if they steal something form you, is the hotel liable for your losses?

Thank God that has never happened, but then again I might have just jinxed myself :mad:

I put my watch, passport and excess cash & credit cards in the safe at night, and all those but the watch when I am away from the room. Also, this depends on if there is a fee for the safe... sometimes I am too cheap to use it.

In-room safes
 

We had the same experience as DankyOne in a hotel in Vienna- used the safe, then couldn't get it unlocked. Had to wait for a manager the next AM to use some sort of passkey. Fortunately, we didn't need anything in it urgently.

Now we use the free ones, but only after testing it. I'm a jewelry freak but decided the most practical course is to bring one set of jewelry and wear it all the time. Then I don't have to worry about stashing the spares. In Brazil, we had an in-room safe but when I bought a bracelet at H. Stern I was too paranoid to use even that- I hid the bag and also hid the bracelet in a dirty sock till we got home.

Stupid/Lucky me
 

5 or 6 years ago I had about $4,000.00 in cash - a combination of USD, Lira, Austrian Schillings, French Francs and Swiss Franks - taken from an innner pocket of an empty suitcase. This was in Milan.

I had put that money in the suitcase just for onr day that was finishing a trip with a series of private consultations with students. The hotel had given me a room below in which to do this. Inspite of my request to pay by wire, my organizers there had just given me the bulk of the above amount in USD, thinking I would be pleased.

Next morning, bright and early, getting ready to leave for home, I though, well I'll need a few yankee bucks in Chicago during the layover. Found .... nothing. Pit of stomach did a quick descend.

I imediately wrote it off in my mind blaming myself.

However, a student of mine who worked at the state theater school nearby made it her hobby to drop by everyday to push forward a request for insurance reimbursement. After nearly six months, she got the name of someone high enough in the hotel to respond positively. After another 3 months, she got the insurance company for the hotel to respond, too.

When the money came back to me after about 1 year, it was like found money and you can believe that I was very happy.

The hotel not only succumbed to my persistent student, but comped me to an upgrade to one of the 5 stars in their group the next two teaching trips to Milan.

Still, was I stupid!!

Now I don't leave cash in the room, and I have an "Inland Marine Insurance" policy that will cover any loss, theft or breakage for anything I travel with: laptop, video beamer, etc. etc. Used it once when my son spilled a drink on my laptop. No problem with repairs, no raise in rates.

Best wishes.

Teacher49,

Would you please elaborate on this insurance policy? I am frequently overseas with valuable items and would love to know they were properly insured.

PacSafe
 

That's when you get one of these!! You can find them at PacSafe... a safe that travels with you.

It is called an "Inland Marine Policy" I bought it through my State Farm Agent. Let me know if you need more info. My memory goes back to 1998 when I first got it, and my assistant has taken care of renewals. So the name may have changed.

As to safes large enough to hold laptops, I've found that they are not uncommon any more. And, I have a big one with a 15" screen. I've seen at least two that are built into the desk and pull out where the drawar would be, and the lit pops up. The nice thing about these models is that they have power outlets in the back. So, in addition to having your laptop or camera locked up, it can be charging!

As for liability for items stolen from a hotel room, I'm sure that this variest greatly by country, and somewhat by state in the US. In most US states, the only way to hold the innkeeper responsible for the theft of your item is if you lock it in the complimentary safe deposit box provided at the front desk. So, even though a safe may be provided for your convenience, it doesn't increase the hotel's responsinbility from theft above what it would be if you just left the valuables laying on the bed in plain sight.

Now, if you use the in-room safe with the understanding that it makes it more difficult for housekeepers to take things but doesn't actually put the hotel on the hook if stuff is taken, be sure to take the precaution of wiping down the control panel after you've locket it. If you don't, someone can tell at lest which numbers you chose for the combination by using a powder to stick to your finger oil residue that you left behind.

If something does go missing, then they should be able to tell who it was by the use of the master key, especially if it is electronic as many of them are. The electronic key plugs into the safe's computer and can tell it to unlock. It will also show when it was locked and by what code. Also, the fact that this was done gets logged in the master key, so if someone borrowed it and then put it back without anyone noticing it, it could be examined to see if it had been used. Plus, somebody's key had to have been used to open the door, and the door logs this activity. So, they can bring the device to read the door data and find out which staff member did it (or at least which key it was). If the hotel is unwilling to do any of this, call the local police and have them look into it. They may be able to persuade the hotel manager to do this sort of investigation. I'd feel comfortable doing this only in the US or perhaps Canada. Thigns might work very differently in other places. For example, I've seen reports of hotels in Cancun seem to have an open secret that this stuff goes on all the time. If management is aware of it, you're not going to make much progress, even if the police did get involved.