Aren't you supposed to be on vacation ? Just leave it at home...

If I hid my laptop on the top of an armoire behind the lip, or behind a pair of curtains, it's a lot more likely that I'd leave it behind in my rush to the airport than it is that someone would steal it from the desk top.

No offense intended to those who made those suggestions - I guess I can get a little forgetful when I'm in a hurry to pack up and check out.

Here's my secret: just put the laptop in your suitcase, buried in the bottom of a plastic laundry bag full of dirty undies. Nobody wants to dig through that mess in the hopes of striking gold.

"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."

Agreed. It has never occurred to me to hide my laptop.

There's not a chance I would leave a hotel without my laptop.
iPod, yes,
Charging cords, yes,
Laptop or Blackberry. NO!

Husband travels 8-10 trips/month thruout US - rarely hides laptop, has never had problem. I think it is prudent to at least attempt to put it out of sight - not so much because housekeeping is going to steal it but because as they are cleaning your room door might be open and it might be visible to others.

All it takes is once....If you haven't had a problem with theft at a hotel, consider yourself lucky to date. But, believe me, it does happen.

As for the confidentially scrambling data, I am not sure if that is too prohibitive financially for my company or what the issue is, but I am looking into it. Still, the inconvenience of losing it in the middle of a trip would just ruin the rest of the trip for me. I'd rather know that it was locked up then just be kicking myself for carelessness. Just my opinion.

The more careless thing is letting you have a laptop with confidential information that isn't scrambled. One lawsuit over lost personal data will cure your employer of that kind of behavior.

Hear! Hear!

There's nothing quite as "prohibitive financially for [a] company" as having its customer lists, business plan, strategy, and tactics fall into enemy hands.

Encryption technology (see tinyurl.com/yte266) is free for the downloading. Your company has no legitimate excuse.

Okay. Yes. I found out the info is scrambled. But they would not be thrilled with having to replace the laptop, and with me not being able to work while away on business. So, locking it up is still necessary.

Do you enter a password every time you power up the laptop?