We're looking at some of the smaller hotels in Negril and some of them don't have room safes.

I usually like to lock up passports, credit cards, etc., and I'm wondering how other travelers have dealt with this.

Is it safe to leave this stuff with the people at the front desk?

I hate to rule out a hotel just because there are no room safes, but we've always had one elsewhere in the Caribbean.

I've been in a cheap place which did not have a safe and a not-as-cheap place which did.

The cheap place did not have housekeeping so just kept my stuff in my room. They did have good security on the grounds so people not staying there were either watched carefully or were run off. Never had anything stolen.

In the place with the safe I did use it but would never leave my stuff with an employee. Just personal feelings but I think that is a formula for theft solely due to the temptation.

Have fun.

mm

There were room safes at Coco La Palm - a smaller hotel in Negril. I used it most of the time, but I'll admit that I did leave stuff out too and never had a problem. Which places are considering without safes?

I've looked at so many hotel websites that I don't want to name names and get it wrong - but I'm looking at those priced a bit lower than Coco La Palm, and I would say the majority of them do not list safes among the room features.

Haven't gotten to the point of emailing the hotels yet. But my experience has been that when they list air cond., ceiling fan, TV, etc., they would list a safe if they had them.

I would not necessarily assume that they don't have safes. I would get in touch with the people at Negril OneStop (http://www.negrilonestop.com/) and get their help. They represent a lot of smaller hotels and I have heard they get competitive rates for you. They should be able to point you in the right direction. I think that Travellers has safes and that is reasonably priced. Rondel Village does - that may be a bit cheaper than Coco. Also look at Fun Holiday. I would email White Sands and ask. I think Bar B Barn has safes and they are a small locally owned property.

Thanks - the places you mentioned are definitely some of the ones I've been looking at.

We have never used a room safe in Jamaica, be the hotel/villa large or small.

Traveler's checks are how we carry the bulk of our money and we generally have our credit cards and cash with us. Passports we have left in the room many times. We do keep copies of the TC serial #s and the passports elsewhere tho, in case.

So far so good (knocking on wood now).

(PS: we've stayed at Rondel 3x and I don't recall ever seeing a safe?)

I'm not a big travel worrywart myself, but as long as you might be making some contacts about room safes, you might as well ask if they're bolted down.

It's not unheard of for the entire room safe to be stolen.