laptops on trips
 

What do you do with your laptops while you are on vacation and don't want to take them with you? Like dinner, hiking, etc.

Safe if they will fit. Locked in luggage otherwise. They really do need to be kept out of "harm's way".

And never leave the laptop or cord or mouse or anything showing in the room at any time. If hotel staff comes to the room when I'm using it I always sweel it all into a drawer - so no one knows I even have one.

Also- be aware that many hotel "safes" aren;t (staff can often get into them).. IMHO you're actaully better locking it in your luggage (or putting in a drawer under your clothes.

Thanks for the replies.

I leave it on the desk and in most cases it's running, albeit with a password protected window saver. I've done it all over the world and never had a problem yet.

Remote safari camp in Kenya, a hotel in Kabul, many little motels in remote spots, as well as top of the line hotels in major world citites.

I guess I'm just lucky :-D

I leave mine out most of the time too.

For my job, I travel 3 weeks a month to a different location every week. I think that it's impossible to "guard all your stuff like a hawk" 24/7, but I do agree with the "out of site, out of mind" approach to keeping the housekeeping's hands off your stuff.

I usually take my laptop with me when I leave in the morning to go to the client's site and bring it back with me in the afternoon. That way the housekeeper doesn't see it when they come in the morning/early afternoon to clean the room. Anything else that might warrent stealing I bury in the bottom of my suitcase. I haven't had anything stolen yet.

Good Luck!

I think you should lock it up. Why would you want to stress about it all day? I know that if I have my laptop (owned by company with confidential client info on it) and it was stolen because I was careless, they would be furious. Not about the actual laptop, but because of the compromised material. I was in a situation in London once where my room was broken into and so was the one next door. His laptop was gone, and mine was down in the hotel lobby safe.

There you have it :-)
Lock it in the hotel safe, hide it in a dresser drawer, lock it into your own suitcase, or just leave it out.

A definitive answer!!! :-)

DH would "hide it" in a closet or in a drawer when we've stayed at hotels/ motels.

They also have laptop locks kind of like coil locks for bikes. That way you could lock it to a table or something similar.

Gosh, I hate to give away my secret but here goes...
95% of the hotels that I stay at have safes. I have left it out lots of times, too.
But if I am a little worried and there is no safe I will do one of two things.
My bag has a hidden pocket between the inside and out (a big front pocket would suffice). I put my bag on the stand, next to a wall. I put the laptop in the front pocket and open the case... then I throw all my stuff in the bag and drape my gown where it hangs over the sides. Looks like nothing interesting is in the bag. They would have to shut it to feel the weight of the laptop. If they poked through the bag, they would see there is nothing interesting.
The other trick is to set it behind full length curtains. Maybe that is common, I don't know. But sometimes I can get it in a little crannie that is covered by curtain.
If I am staying 1 or 2 nights, I do not allow cleaning anyway.

Just one more thing. Hiding it is 50/50. When my room was broken into in london, it was completely trashed--and so was the one next to mine. Then, the hotel room doors were left OPEN with busted locks for hours until someone from the hotel noticed. So, whatever the original crook did not take, someone else could have during that time. IMO, not worth the aggravation. Take the 5 minutes and go lock it up.

One more good place... on top of the armoire, if it has a raised edge.
Again, I do not use the daily housekeeping.
If I am traveling to an iffy area, I will also use a door alarm.
I know many of you will think this is really excessive but so...?
It is tiny and attaches to the door. If it is opened it screeches really loud. Just a deterrent.

We almost always have" his and hers" with us and leave them on the desk. Have never locked them up.
We have left them in rooms in Japan,France, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Disney World, and who knows where else and have never had an incident.
I think that if someone breaks into your room, there is not much you can do to outsmart them, but if you feel better leaving at the front desk, do it.

I always leave mine on the desk (and often two of them). I have never even thought to worry about it. I travel on business and stay in your standard Marriot and Hilton about 50-60 nights per year. Not saying this is the best thing to do, just have never thought about it.

We solve this problem by leaving our laptops at home and using computers in hotel business centers, internet cafes, and FedEx Kinkos.

For me, there is no problem. My laptop travels with me - and has since there were no laptops. No problems yet.

The only time anyone I know has ever had problem was when an entire team at a sales meeting at a nice hotel left their laptops unattended in a conference room while they went to lunch at the hotel restaurant. Someone came in and cleaned house. But, I don't know of anyone who has had a problem with laptops in hotel rooms - and my circle travels for business.

"I know that if I have my laptop (owned by company with confidential client info on it) and it was stolen because I was careless, they would be furious. Not about the actual laptop, but because of the compromised material."

Gee whiz, why doesn't someone invent a way that you can scramble the data in your system so that a thief wouldn't be able to read it?

tinyurl.com/yte266