Using the hotel safe

[Guest]

I always like to use the hotel safe for valuables when bringing a guest back.

 

I also take care to do this discretely, either before going out or whilst the guest is in the shower. After all, although theft is a definite risk, most guys will be honest and I don't want to risk offence by visibly demonstrating a lack of trust in them.

 

Do others take a similar view?

[Rogie]

Do others take a similar view?

Yes.

 

I guess you're referring to hotels or guest houses that have a safe in your room. I prefer these for obvious reasons.

 

Many places don't have a room safe. You can chooses not to stay in such an establishment, or use one of the boxes usually sited behind the reception desk. The Malaysia Hotel in Bangkok is a good example of this. You pay 500 baht deposit for the key. Clearly it isn't as convenient as having one in your room, but better than nothing!

[Guest anonone]

I have a very similar routine of putting wallet, etc in the safe while my guest is showering. There have been a couple of instances where my usual flow was out-of-sync and I ended up using the safe while we were in the room. I felt a little uncomfortable, but I did not perceive any reaction.

 

If I can add on another question, what are thoughts about leaving valuables in the safe while out and about?

 

Keeping them on my person entails some risk of theft, pickpocket, etc.

Keeping them in the safe in the room seems unwise to me as well. I know at least some of the hotel staff has access to the safe (would have to in case someone forgets combo, departing guest leaves it locked, etc).

 

Any suggestions or points of view on best way to keep things safe? (no pun intended)

[ceejay]

When there is a room safe and I am intending to take guests back, I put everything in the safe before I go out. I only take enough money with me for the evening, plus a tip for the boy. That way, the need to put something in the safe while the guest is there doesn't even arise.

I have had a couple of instances of needing the safe opened, once at the Ambiance some years ago and once at Baan Dok Mai last year. Both times I had to wait for the manager or owner to come to the building from wherever they were, because the means of opening the safe were themselves kept in a safe that only the manager had access to.

I find that in the Isaan, very few hotels have room safes. I leave larger stuff, like my netbook, locked in my suitcase and have a slimline fabric money belt that tucks inconspicuously inside the waistband of my trousers for credit cards, passport, most of my cash etc. I've never had a problem.

If there were a problem with thefts from safes at any particular place, we'd soon hear about it on the message boards, and the answer would be not to stay there. I wouldn't worry about leaving valuables, passport etc. in the room safes if I were you.

[Guest fountainhall]

When there is a room safe and I am intending to take guests back, I put everything in the safe before I go out. I only take enough money with me for the evening, plus a tip for the boy. That way, the need to put something in the safe while the guest is there doesn't even arise.

I do exactly the same. It's usually possible to estimate more or less what I will need to spend prior to bringing someone back.

 

If there is no in-room safe, then I also lock valuables in cases. But I take an extra precaution of splitting, say, cash into 2 or 3 amounts and stash these in different places - e.g. socks, a wash bag, anything else that is rolled up. I take the view that you can never be totally secure, but you can make it difficult and make sure temptation is out of the way.

[Guest voldemar]

uncomfortable, but I did not perceive any reaction.

 

If I can add on another question, what are thoughts about leaving valuables in the safe while out and about?

 

Keeping them on my person entails some risk of theft, pickpocket, etc.

Keeping them in the safe in the room seems unwise to me as well. I know at least some of the hotel staff has access to the safe (would have to in case someone forgets combo, departing guest leaves it locked, etc).

 

Any suggestions or points of view on best way to keep things safe? (no pun intended)

Theoritically speaking, keeping valuables in hotel safes is by no means safe. Even in better hotels in Thailand quite a few members of the stuff have access to the room and opening room safe is quite easy even without master keys.

Practically speaking, you cannot hedge against everything. It is just impossible. You need to rely

on general decency and honesty of people and so far I had no problems in Thailand in this respect.

Of course, past experience cannot guarantee the future...

Another thing is that according to Thai laws foreign tourists suppose to have their passports with themselves all the time...

[Guest anonone]

Thanks for all the replies. Seems there is no magic formula for this one.

 

I like the idea of splitting things up, so I will probably continue to carry some items with me, and start leaving others in the safe. That way I will still be "operational" if something should happen.

[Guest fountainhall]

Another thing is that according to Thai laws foreign tourists suppose to have their passports with themselves all the time...

I am aware of the law but choose not to comply with it. I reckon there's too much chance that my passport might get lost if I always have it with me than if it is in the hotel safe or some secure place. Instead, I photocopy the page with my details and the one with my visa information. I then place them back to back and laminate them. This I carry with me. Will it be acceptable if I am apprehended? Don't know, as it has never happened, but I'm prepared to risk it.

[Guest]

There are very few reports of thefts from Thai hotel safes, so I place valuables in them before going out. If the room has some exceptionally obscure hiding places, I may disperse stuff around.

 

In the few cases where I've come back from the bar and not had the chance to lock the wallet in the safe, I just make sure it stays in my trousers, in my line of sight for the whole time he's there.

I have never yet locked something in the safe in open view of a guest.

[ceejay]

You need to rely on general decency and honesty of people and so far I had no problems in Thailand in this respect.

Exactly so. I have never had a problem either. On the other hand, I am always careful not to leave valuables or money lying around. It's not only foolish to leave 5000 or 10000 baht lying around, it's unfair to put that sort of temptation in the way of someone with an uncertain income in a country where many have to live on less than 300 baht a day.

 

As far as passports go, I have never been asked for mine either. The one place I have been warned you should always have your passport is on the long distance trains. Thai Railways have their own police force, and apparently they occasionally go through the trains doing ID checks and will not accept copies.

[Guest fountainhall]

The one place I have been warned you should always have your passport is on the long distance trains.

Checking in to hotels also requires the original. Hotels need to report the Immigration TM form number in addition to the passport number.

[Guest GaySacGuy]

I have been very open in front of the boys about using the safe in the rooms. If I want to open it and lock things up with them in the room, I do so. If I need to open the safe to get their tip, then that is what I do. I have never had any bad reaction from the boys about this...I think most are aware that we use safes..and it is to protect our stuff from more than just them.

[Guest Martelly]

Your right to put your valubles in a safe when you are with a boy.

 

But with experince, you should have a good suitcase with a lock and keep your valubles in there when you go out. A well known hotel was known for going into your safe while you werte out. The digital safe has a over ride key.

You can tell as when you get back your code does not work. They told me that there was a electric storm and power cut, which caused the numbers to be void. Funny that the safes were battery operated.

[Guest]

But with experince, you should have a good suitcase with a lock and keep your valubles in there when you go out. A well known hotel was known for going into your safe while you werte out. The digital safe has a over ride key.

 

Which hotel was this & was it recent? PM me if necessary. I think there was a negative report about a BKK hotel having a rogue member of staff a few years back. Other than that, I understand Thai hotel safes are usually reliable. That's certainly what a poll on another forum showed. Word would get around if specific popular hotels had a problem.

 

The following device should add some piece of mind, but I would be more interested in a compact product that does the same job.

Lock

[Guest anonone]

I would also be interested in which hotel. I had an incident where I think my safe was entered and some money taken, but I am not 100% sure. (little too much to drink and not certain I was as careful as I usually am. Lesson learned. ). I also had a guest, so wouldn't know if hotel staff or guest anyway.

 

Also, some safes have a physical key to enter the safe, bypassing the key pad altogether. No way to tell if someone made access or not.

 

Part of life, I guess. Ya rolls the dice and takes ya chances.

[Guest Martelly]

The hotel was in Boys town, not going to mention the hotel. But if you look back over the boards you will find the post. Also have 100% proof that this was done by the owner.

 

If the safe is a digital one, by all means lock your stuff while you have a boy in the room. But always lock your passport and any valubles in a well locked case. Trust me i have been the position, when this happened. I also have on tape of this being done a secound time as i have it on recording.

Not worth going to the police as the police are well paid by this establishment and the problem would have cost me a lot more trouble than money and valubles.

 

Take my word for it or dont, but dont say you have not been warned.

[Guest anonone]

Thanks Martelly.

Good info and good advice. I think I will look into some kind of locked case.

 

I don't want to be paranoid, but trying to be smart.

 

Totally understand about not reporting it. Not worth it to me either.

 

Best of luck....

[Guest fountainhall]

I had an incident where I think my safe was entered and some money taken, but I am not 100% sure.

One point not mentioned so far is the combination of numbers you use for the hotel safe. Obviously it's inviting trouble if you insert the first numbers of your birthday or passport issue date, as these are on file in the main office. But it's not always easy remembering different sets of password numbers for luggage bags, safes, iPods, computers etc. Until recently, I used to have one set of 4 or 6 numbers which I used regularly for hotel safes. One day returning to my hotel room I suddenly realised that I had left the padlock for my suitcase on the room desk and had failed to roll the numbers around as I usually do. The first three numbers on the safe happened to be the same as those for the padlock. Thankfully I noticed in time and changed the safe code.

[Guest Geezer]

Years ago in the Ambiance I inadvertently slammed the door of the room safe causing it to loose battery power for an instant, clearing its

[Guest Martelly]

Geezer thats rubbish. They dont have to call Bangkok. They just come to your room with a key and it opens. They have a over ride key. The same as every hotel that has the digital safe. I am not saying you were not told this but beleive me its rubbish. Also i got a lot of pms and threats when this was mentioned before. I am only trying to help you guys not to get into the position that i was in. It was very unpleasant. When i saw the taped version, i checked out the next day and booked into the Hard Rock Hotel.

I have said all i can on the matter now its upto you if you want to leave stuff in your safe.

[Guest voldemar]

I deal with this issue on much more serious scale. Namely, I keep gold in several self-deposit boxes throughout the world. If you look at this industry, there are very different kind of offers (starting from insured program in Switzerland where you need to declare all your holdings and ending up with storage facilities like in Panama with biometric entry keys). While Swiss program is 100 percent reliable, it is reportable due to new rules in US and hence will be unavailable to Americans pretty soon (that how it works in Obama paradise). The program in Panama is run by a very well known crook and no matter what they claim, they will clean the safes in due time...

The thing is it is not a question how reliable safes are it is rather the question whether you trust the people. For the God sake if you do not trust Boystown hotels, there are plenty of reliable choices in Pattaya. Nothing is hundred percent safe but the number 99 is not out of reality. Remember better hotels in Pattaya do care about their reputation...

[Guest]

My home safe is similar to some of those in Thai hotels and you just pull off a plastic cover and insert a key for the over ride.

 

On a Sawatdee poll from a couple of years back, 59 people never had anything stolen from safes, 3 had stuff stolen and 5 never use them.

 

There are at least 3 hotels in Boystown, so it would be helpful to know which one had issues and is the hotel management still the same now, particularly as I'm thinking of using one of those next time. Being next door to Funny Boys is always convenient.

[ceejay]

It's seven years ago, and things may have changed, but my experience in the Ambiance was identical to Geezer's. They used some sort of electronic box that had to be interfaced up to the safe and called Bangkok for some sort of code. No key was used. I know, because I stood over them and watched them do it.

[Guest Martelly]

Ceejay, not wishing to call you a liar. The safes have a key that just over rides the system. They are battery operated and are in Le Cafe royal and The Copa Hotel.

Can be brought at Big C or Carefour. Maybe they made out to you that they called someone, but trust me a key and only a key is needed to open the safe. Want proof, go on to Sawatdee Forum and ask K Quill, he was in partnership with them. He had the same safes. He will confirm what i have just said.

Upto you, beleive me or not, dont say you have not been warned.

[Guest]

Electronic safes need a back up key, in case the batteries go flat.