How I secure my belongings..

[bucknaway]

While planning for my vacation I did not know if the places I was staying had a room safe or not. When I contacted the hosts of my Airbnb they would answer every question I asked but would not answer my question regarding a safe in the room. So before I arrived I ordered a lock box to keep my passport in credit cards safe.

 

SnapSafe TrekLite Lock Box https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XQVYY24/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_dSW5DbZNW8BYK

https://www.dobermanproducts.com/products/se_0210.html

[macaroni21]

Now, this is useful. The Amazon site doesn't state the dimensions, but looking at your photos, I reckon it's about 10 or 12 inches, by 6 inches by 2 inches? 

What do you reckon the weight to be? 

If a hotel thief, frustrated that he or she can't steal, decides to sabotage the box, how easy would that be? Can he/she simply take away the battery, and if that's done, does it scramble the stored combination? Is there a manual key provided to open the safe?

One interesting point: The Amazon site lists as one of the box's features thus: it "Fits up to full-sized 1911 handguns".  Only in America! is this important! 

 

 

[spoon]

I usually just put valuables in my hand luggage and lock it. Seems to do the trick when there is a lack of safe in the room.

[vinapu]

17 minutes ago, spoon said:

I usually just put valuables in my hand luggage and lock it. Seems to do the trick when there is a lack of safe in the room.

# me too

[Londoner]

My least-favourite security arrangements  were those provided by an otherwise  excellent hotel in Chiang Rai; a row of safe boxes near the entrance to Reception but just around a corner. I decided that a locked suitcase was infinitely preferable.   

[thaiophilus]

9 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

Is there a manual key provided to open the safe?

From the picture, it appears to have not merely a manual key, but a TSA-approved one. So any criminal with access to the internet can open it in seconds. Indeed, the legend on the lock even  tells the thief which key is needed.

[bucknaway]

All anyone needs is time and knowledge to empty any safe or walk away with any luggage.

The lock box I purchased is used as a gun safe for the car or home.  I look at it as a speed bump to slow down any potential theft.  I added the motion alarm to it to notify me if it was tampered with while I was sleeping or on another room.

I guess you can say I purchased peace of mind.

 

I was with a poster here when their room safe in Pattaya stopped working.  A service call was made and it took the guy less than 15 minutes to pop the safe open and put it back together as if he was never there.

[macaroni21]

18 hours ago, Londoner said:

My least-favourite security arrangements  were those provided by an otherwise  excellent hotel in Chiang Rai; a row of safe boxes near the entrance to Reception but just around a corner. I decided that a locked suitcase was infinitely preferable.   

I wouldn't use those too after a friend told me of an experience in an African city. The hotel he was in had safes in an alcove near the reception. He dutifully put his passport, cash and some other valuables in there, as did, I suppose, other guests. One night a gang of robbers came, held up the reception guy(s) and emptied out all the safes. They took their time to open each and every locked box. (It didn't help that the police, as expected, were slow to respond). Having so many valuables in a single alcove made it an extra-tempting target; certainly much easier than going room to room. It needn't be said that all the guests were in uproar in the morning.

[Londoner]

Has anyone  suffered a theft from a hotel room safe in Thailand?

[thaiophilus]

16 hours ago, bucknaway said:

All anyone needs is time and knowledge to empty any safe or walk away with any luggage.

The lock box I purchased is used as a gun safe for the car or home.  I look at it as a speed bump to slow down any potential theft.  I added the motion alarm to it to notify me if it was tampered with while I was sleeping or on another room.

I guess you can say I purchased peace of mind.

Of course. All security is a tradeoff between cost, convenience and time. You have to decide for yourself what attack model you're trying to defend against. In your attack model the pickability of TSA locks is not important but in other circumstances it could matter, and that red TSA logo screams "easy backdoor, try me first" to anyone who knows. Incidentally, if the third comment on the Bruce Schneier article I cited is true, TSA locks are specifically banned as insecure for transporting firearms on domestic US flights

16 hours ago, bucknaway said:

I was with a poster here when their room safe in Pattaya stopped working.  A service call was made and it took the guy less than 15 minutes to pop the safe open and put it back together as if he was never there.

Couldn't he just use the master key they keep behind the desk?

Or had it been lost/stolen?

[vinapu]

3 hours ago, Londoner said:

Has anyone  suffered a theft from a hotel room safe in Thailand?

Never ever in 20 trips I had anything stolen from room safe or in fact from room itself including few times when neglectfully I left few thousands in the open.

Only case of something missing ( 500 baht note ) was from BTS but even this I'm not sure it was pickpocket's job or I simply dropped note when reaching for money to buy  a ticket.

[Londoner]

My experience (75 trips approx) too. But I take sensible precautions. The chances of a cleaner taking money are remote...she would quickly be identified. The same with other hotel staff, certainly if it involved breaking into safes or bags. Casual visitors?  That's in our hands. Professional thieves? maybe at The Oriental. Illicit visitors in hotels....unlikely. Workmen? possible I suppose.

However, if we take precautions- safes, locking cases and so on-  we are very unlikely to be victims. 

By the way, my one experience of being a victim occurred before I'd even left London; it was in Heathrow and I lost passport, car keys, house keys ,  a credit card, money...the whole damn lot.  Not to mention the holiday in Thailand. And now I am very watchful while checking-in. I believe the perpetrator to have been masquerading as an employee.  A word to the wise!

[macaroni21]

I too have not had anything stolen from a Thai hotel room in my countless trips, though of course, I take basic precautions. The nearest I've come to such mishaps would be when the toyboys helped themselves to the minibar without asking. I consider hotel prices for minibar items daylight robbery.

I've had one theft though. It was in a Manila hotel room. When the boy left, I realised my watch was missing. A watch is not something I'd think of putting into a safe on coming back into my room. I just take it off and lay it on a table, but nowadays I hardly wear a watch anymore. I guess the present-day equivalent would be a cellphone. I think most of us just leave them around. We'd appear too paranoid by half if we made the effort to stick them into a safe. 

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, macaroni21 said:

We'd appear too paranoid by half if we made the effort to stick them into a safe. 

I agree but placing cell in day pack or pocket of jacket hanging in the closet while guest is in the washroom would not amount to paranoia. 

 

[10tazione]

22 hours ago, Londoner said:

... The chances of a cleaner taking money are remote...she would quickly be identified. The same with other hotel staff, certainly if it involved breaking into safes or bags. Casual visitors?  That's in our hands. Professional thieves? maybe at The Oriental. Illicit visitors in hotels....unlikely. Workmen? possible I suppose...

What about other guests? When cleaners clean the room, the door is often wide open. The cleaner cleans the bathroom, the guest passing the room sees the phone on the table and is tempted ...

[10tazione]

Where I always feel uncomfortable is the security check at the airport. Sometimes the hand luggage with your passport and all your money is alreday "at the other side", but you are still far behind in the queue (maybe even distracted by the hot security officer) and the luggage out of sight.

[Guest]

I have had zero thefts from a Thai room safe.

One 500 baht bottle of whiskey went from the mini bar in my first ever trip.

A few years ago, I had some cash stolen from a gay griendly hotel room safe in Cambodia.   I would name and shame,  but as the cash in the envelope was only counted the day after moving hotel,  there are 2 possible hotels.

I always try to book a hotel with a safe.  

[bucknaway]

I've had cash and belongings stolen from me in Bangkok and Pattaya bit I got the lock box for Brazil.  If I come back to Thailand I'll bring it with me since it's light and could come in handy.

I also forgot to mention the times people attempted to pick my pockets in Phuket and Bangkoks DJ station.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, 10tazione said:

Where I always feel uncomfortable is the security check at the airport. Sometimes the hand luggage with your passport and all your money is alreday "at the other side", but you are still far behind in the queue (maybe even distracted by the hot security officer) and the luggage out of sight.

I also dislike this, particularly when carrying large sums through the security check.   Also, the security camera coverage is not as good as you would expect.   I try to keep wads of notes on me OR place them inside the backpack rather than out in the tray. 

They get moved straight back to zipped pockets afterwards.

[vinapu]

5 hours ago, 10tazione said:

What about other guests? When cleaners clean the room, the door is often wide open. The cleaner cleans the bathroom, the guest passing the room sees the phone on the table and is tempted ...

that would be very audacious although not impossible . It brings to the light another warning:

From my backpacking days I recall that is was and most likely still is common wisdom that not locals but other travelers are main threat when comes to theft or other forms of financial abuse like borrowing small  amount of money to pay for lunch because they forgot a wallet  and you, their neigbour from the same hotel floor happened to be dinning  in the same venue. Of course in the evening one learned that they already left.

I was such unlucky lender twice in places as remote as Bam in Iran and Easter Island but shockingly enough in both cases culprits were Swiss, nation not exactly famous for dishonesty nor poverty. There was also happy ending, on Easter Island I caught them in the airport before they checked in, retrieved  my money just for fun  and all it was 5000 pesos , then 12.50 USD

[vinapu]

4 hours ago, bucknaway said:

 

I also forgot to mention the times people attempted to pick my pockets in Phuket and Bangkoks DJ station.

In now defunct Happy Boys around the corner from Sunee I noticed that guy sitting amorously  on my lap took some interest in my  shirt pockets so quite promising session was halted and my lap unburdened. But it was only such case I had in  LOS.

2 hours ago, z909 said:

I also dislike this, particularly when carrying large sums through the security check.   Also, the security camera coverage is not as good as you would expect.   I try to keep wads of notes on me OR place them inside the backpack rather than out in the tray. 

 

I always keep cash in money belt inside my underwear and rarely they demand to take it off. When they do  I also try to place it inside of  backpack. Never problem leaving Thailand a EMPTY money belt is already in the checked  luggage if any.

[Guest]

13 hours ago, vinapu said:

I always keep cash in money belt inside my underwear and rarely they demand to take it off. When they do  I also try to place it inside of  backpack. 

My preferred location for cash is in a pocket sewn inside my trousers.   However, when carrying funds for ~12 weeks,  airport staff sometimes spot the bulge and ask me to remove it.  So I then try to place it in a rucksack.

[Londoner]

At LHR- and probably elsewhere- sniffer dogs are employed to check out people carrying large amounts of notes . Usually, it's non-British looking travellers who are given particular attention (this is Boris johnson's Britain after all)  but I carry a large amount when I travel and so I always have  a bank statement.  A TV programme showed a Vietnamese woman having her cash taken away from her on the way to her flight.

[Guest]

Since the best British prime minister of the last 70 years abolished currency controls shortly after election in 1979,  I'm fairly sure I'm entitled to take a few grand through customs.

[vinapu]

9 hours ago, z909 said:

Since the best British prime minister of the last 70 years abolished currency controls shortly after election in 1979,

I did not know Theresa May was also prime minister in late 70-ties, an eye opener for me !