Has anyone had any propblems with hotel safes in Italy. I'd like to put everything (passports, money, credit cards, etc.) in them at the various hotels. Just want to make sure they are safe.

Please see this thread I posted asking this same question:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34518639

You'll always hear someone who knows someone whose cousin's friend know something who've lost something in a hotel safe. But I can't recall reading that it has happened to any fodorite 1st hand.

If someone has had stuff stolen, please speak up.

Well, I don't know about Fodorites, but they aren't the only folks who post reports online.. However, the quotes I provided in the referred thread *were* from this very message board (thus "fodorites&quot.

Hi S,

They are safer than leaving them on the bed.

However, a professional can break into one of them in a few seconds.

So how do we know if the staff hired by the hotel are professional safe crackers, or merely amateurs?

I simply leave my pp, money and cc tucked away in the bottom of my suitcase, under my dirty clothes, close the suitcase when I leave and pile something on top of it.

Call me cavalier, but I'm sure I spend a lot less time worrying about this stuff than many who post here on fodors. Ditto for what to wear.

If you are that concerned about hotel staff searching through your stuff to get your pp, then you're staying at the wrong hotel.

Let's make the distinction between room safe and hotel safe. The latter is likely "safe," the former chancy -- no matter how expensive your hotel.

I don't spend a whole lot of time worrying about this, either, but I don't have a whole lot of stuff, maybe that's why. I only have two credit cards and I always carry them on me, and I don't carry along lots of cash.

I have used room safes, but I always check to make sure they are really secure and can't be removed easily (the whole safe, I mean), and then make sure it works properly. I think the issue of the hotel safe is that they are supposed to be liable if you leave something there -- I don't know, I've never done that, but if they aren't liable for that, either, I would never use one. To me, a hotel safe sounds a lot more public than your room safe (I don't want to hand over my stuff to someone and have them know what I have, and who knows who has access to that, but it's not you).

I've used the hotel safe on occasion if it was at the front desk and for a longer stay.

Other than that, I split my ID, money, cards, etc. into a couple places, carry some, leave some locked in my suitcase in the hotel room. Fool-proof? Likely not, but works for me. btw- I'm one of the crazy ones who always carries their original passport on their person.

Ya don't have to be a Professional .

Author: ParadiseLost ([email protected])
Date: 01/16/2007, 04:28 am

Wipe the keypad clean and to make this even easier later on give it a light spray from something like hairspray, furniture polish, etc.

Joe Tourist puts in his 4 digit pin code say 1,2,3,4 and leaves for the day.

Later Jane Maid can either just blow some talcum power on the keypad or use a flashlight to find the 4 numbers that Joe touched.

I would have to write them down but a person with a decent memory won't have too.

Anyway just write down the numbers starting at 1234, 1243, 1324, 1342, 1423, 1432 and the next column start at '2' 2134, 2143, etc.

In the end you'll have 4 columns each with 6 number sets and 1 set out of 24 is the combination.

There are different odds for pins like 1124 or 1112.
Regards, Walter

The safe-user could defeat this method in two ways: wiping down the numbers on the safe, and touching every single number on the keypad.

We have never felt completely comfortable with the hotel safe. DH keeps any money and cc in a money belt. I carry the passports in my shoulder bag which I hold very close to my person.....have never had any problems in 8 yrs. of European travels.

How about putting the possessions in a safe, then rip the safe out of the closet and take it with you when go out? Wouldn't that be the safest way?

OP said, "Just want to make sure they are safe."

You can't. Because you're relying on the honesty of people you don't know. I always carry my irreplaceables (or difficult-to-replaces) in a money belt under my clothes. I think it's the safest way, and I don't have to trust anyone else.

<<<The safe-user could defeat this method in two ways: wiping down the numbers on the safe, and touching every single number on the keypad.>>>

Yes but who does this? Besides the people who have read this post ?
Regards, Walter
p.s. It's not my idea and I forgot where I originally got it from.

Presumably other posters are less scatter-brained than I am, but the one time I put my extra cards into the hotel safe (not the room safe), at the end of my stay, I swanned off without retrieving them. I didn't remember them till I was a hundred miles away or so.

Now, I always wear my money belt containing my cards, money and passport. I usually get $500 worth of euros or local currency and keep it all in the money belt. There's no need to store it in any safe.

I don't usually wear jewelry, but if I did, I wouldn't wear it when I travel.

bottom line is that nothing is 100% guaranteed. except taxes and death.

go with the odds. The odds say that you are probably less likely to be a victim of theft using a hotel safe than carrying them on you.

There is always someone with a story why this is a bad idea. They are the people that don't wear seatbelts because there is a 1% chance (I don't know the exact number) you can't get out of the car in case of a fire or under water. Forget that there is a significantly higher likelihood that your life will be saved... "what if?"

The odds are probably higher that you will leave them behind in the safe than get stolen from the safe. To combat this, I put my contacts (needed every morning) or glasses (needed every night) in the safe. They are the one thing I'm freaky about not leaving behind, so I know if important things are with them, I don't leave important things behind. What is that one thing you never walk out of the door without ? Keep that in the safe and higher chance of not leaving anything behind.

>The odds say that you are probably less likely to be a victim of theft using a hotel safe than carrying them on you.<

You wouldn't mind citing a reference, would you?

<<The odds say that you are probably less likely to be a victim of theft using a hotel safe than carrying them on you.>>

Sorry(!!) but I have a hard time believing this is an actual fact. How do you know this for sure? I don't buy it myself.

A full sixty-eight percent of statistics are made up on the spot.