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Post by Liiisa on Jan 15, 2024 10:34:35 GMT -5
Webs' question about passport wallets reminded me of a thing I'm paranoid about: hotel safes, the little electronic ones in the room.
What if the electricity goes out just as I'm trying to check out? Or what if the thing just stops functioning, and housekeeping can't figure out how to fix it and I am supposed to be leaving to catch a flight and my stuff is trapped in there?
So I just don't like putting my stuff in those things, though I do, but I say a little prayer to the gods of chaos to spare me once again every time.
Or wait: maybe they've got a master key or something, and I should just calm down about it, hmm.
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Post by whothingie on Jan 15, 2024 12:50:08 GMT -5
We sell them. There are master keys that can over ride your combination and make them manually operated in an emergency.
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Post by Queen on Jan 15, 2024 12:55:08 GMT -5
I never use them, because hotel staff have master keys that can override my code.
Which I found out when a colleague left her US passport in one in a hotel in Belgium and got on a train to Amsterdam.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 15, 2024 13:07:55 GMT -5
See, the master key overriding thing is good (in case of a power outage) and bad (in case of a corrupt hotel employee)
I've locked things up in my backpack and then cable-locked my backpack to an immovable piece of furniture when there wasn't a safe. Of course then the backpack can always be cut, but at some point you just have to assume all will be well.
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Post by fishface on Jan 15, 2024 15:42:40 GMT -5
Hotel safes aren't safe. But they are a convenient way to keep your valuables together in one spot if not on your person.
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Post by kneazle on Jan 15, 2024 16:27:36 GMT -5
Seems like a surefire way to forget whatever you put in there.
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Post by Phar Lap on Jan 15, 2024 17:13:42 GMT -5
I did use the hotel safe one time, I forget the place I forget the country, but it was a pain in the proverbial. I needed said passport for something, so sorry the person in charge of hotel safe isn’t here at the moment. And so……we wait.
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Post by psw on Jan 15, 2024 17:28:09 GMT -5
Mr.W once forgot his address book, which also contained some internet passwords, in a hotel safe. Luckily the next guest in that room was an honest woman who mailed it back to him when she got home. He was totally baffled. I found her business address, including her company's email, and told Mr.W to write her a thankyou letter, which he did.
I never really trusted those safes either.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 15, 2024 17:54:55 GMT -5
I do kinda like my "lock the backpack zippers and then cable-lock the backpack to something immovable" technique, though I'm sure it's a bad idea unless you have a ballistic-fabric backpack that can't be cut open easily.
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Post by Webs on Jan 15, 2024 18:17:53 GMT -5
While the understanding is that you use them at your own risk, I've always gone by the idea that it's better to secure your things in the safe than leave them in a drawer or drag them all around with you.
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Post by Webs on Jan 15, 2024 19:38:14 GMT -5
Oh and I don't travel with jewelry. Who am I impressing?
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Post by psw on Jan 15, 2024 20:32:55 GMT -5
Oh and I don't travel with jewelry. Who am I impressing? Right. A couple of pairs of cheap earrings and that's it.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 15, 2024 20:46:20 GMT -5
I’ve never used one. I don’t travel with anything more valuable than my phone, which is always with me.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 15, 2024 21:04:59 GMT -5
I don't even wear jewelry anymore unless I'm doing something Very Fancy, so I'm certainly not going to travel with it
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Post by sophie on Jan 15, 2024 21:18:20 GMT -5
I don’t usually have many valuables with me, but I have bought some fancy jewelry while traveling and used the hotel safes then. I have also traveled with a friend who is a very high end jeweller and has bought rocks to use back home. The safes were used.
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Post by Phar Lap on Jan 15, 2024 22:02:15 GMT -5
I have misunderstood, I thought this was about the hotel safe in a room near reception where guests can leave certain items. Not about the hotel safe in your accommodation room. Those, I have never used, I didn’t see the need, if someone is that desperate to rob me of my two hundred ringgit or one million Kip, and if I was so worried about that happening, I’d never have a carefree holiday! Apart from my passport, the only thing of little value is my watch and camera!
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Post by whothingie on Jan 15, 2024 22:19:31 GMT -5
My pilot friend says the majority of them keep passports, etc in the in_room safe, and so they don't leave items behind put one of their uniform shoes in the safe as reminder.
When I first traveled it was necessary to carry everything every day, and a pain in hot climates. In room safes are a good compromise, but don't use 0000 or 1234 as the code as that is the obvious easy option.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 16, 2024 5:04:58 GMT -5
That is a good tip with the shoe!
I went to the UK a couple of years ago - before the Brexit travel regs really kicked in, but after I got my German citizenship. I put my British passport in the hotel safe. My parents were staying in the room next door and my dad had done the booking.
Completely forgot about my passport til I was standing in the Eurostar terminal trying to get the train to Brussels. Argh. I got on the train using my German ID card (that wouldn't work now, as the UK requires you to use a passport) and the hotel couriered my passport back to Germany... along with a man's white shirt.
When I called my mum to say the passport was back, I mentioned the shirt, and she said "ohhhh, that's what happened to your dad's shirt!". He had left it in the wardrobe, and as we were on the same booking, I got that too.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 16, 2024 5:59:22 GMT -5
My biggest concern with them as I said is if the electricity should go out, which isn't completely implausible in rural Panama and such. If I do use them, I write a note "SAFE" and binder-clip it to the handle of my backpack so that I don't forget that stuff is in there.
I love the pilots' shoe idea, who.
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Post by romily on Jan 16, 2024 10:21:32 GMT -5
TO be honest I do'nt think I ever used the in room hotel safe - or maybe once? Either I stayed in hostels who didn't have these fancy options, and I left valuables at reception who locked it away for you in the old days.
Nowadays when I'm staying in arbnbs - I just leave my stuff (passport, money/cards I don't need) in a non obvious place. Never has been a problem.
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Post by vinnyd on Jan 16, 2024 10:56:28 GMT -5
I am trying to come up with an equivalent of the pilot's uniform shoe.
Maybe I could take what I am likely to need out of my toiletry bag and leave the bag in the safe? Any other ideas?
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 16, 2024 11:28:42 GMT -5
It needs to be something you can’t leave without, like all of your underwear or something.
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Post by romily on Jan 16, 2024 12:36:44 GMT -5
At work when I leave shopping in the fridge I also leave my car keys.
So maybe something you need to check out of the hotel?
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Post by vinnyd on Jan 16, 2024 18:19:57 GMT -5
I think I would always remember to pack my toothbrush, razor, etc, and would know that they belonged in their own bag, not just loose in the suitcase/backpack.
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Post by wombatrois on Jan 16, 2024 18:30:12 GMT -5
At work when I leave shopping in the fridge I also leave my car keys. So maybe something you need to check out of the hotel? Hey I used to do this too! But now with the smart keys/locks, putting them in a fridge can make them inoperable, so I don't do it anymore. We always use the safe. We have had to use the master key override once in Burma - although I don't recall if it was us or the safe, but it emitted a high pitched tone because something happened. While we understand that there is an override key and therefore not 100% unique, it keeps everything together and we are used to using one, so never forget. Although I will admit to a mantra in the morning of departure along the lines of safe, safe, safe contents! But then I always check, double, triple, quadruple check my passport. This is a habit formed when we lived a 4.5 hour drive from the airport and often drove up for the flight that same day. These days I still do it because we still live that far away, but with the apartment in the city, it does give some breathing space to dash back down to retrieve it if necessary. J forgot his international drivers licence once, so we just went and got another one on the way to the airport. Vinny - do you wear glasses? You could put them in the safe the night before? Pills? Watch? Phone! anything you use/check regularly before you leave would do.
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Post by wombatrois on Jan 16, 2024 18:31:55 GMT -5
And I don't own any pilot shoes, only regular shoes
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 16, 2024 18:51:18 GMT -5
I think I would always remember to pack my toothbrush, razor, etc, and would know that they belonged in their own bag, not just loose in the suitcase/backpack. Yeah, now that I think of it your unpacked toiletries case idea is a winner. The good thing about this idea is that it's something that isn't really necessary until the day you leave.
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Post by whothingie on Jan 16, 2024 22:20:20 GMT -5
Wombatris they also have a back up battery in the better quality ones, and that high pitched tone was saying somethings wrong. Either a power cut and relying on battery to stay closed, or too many incorrect keypad attempts. Hotel reception or management usually check the safes after each guests departure.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 17, 2024 6:56:07 GMT -5
Yeah, you know I think the reason I forgot my passport in London was precisely because it didn't feel "foreign" enough to me, like I wasn't on a proper trip? I was just heading to the station as if I was going to Yorkshire. I think if I was going to an airport in another country I'd be much less likely not to check and recheck my documents. Let's hope so, anyway!
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Post by kraken on Jan 17, 2024 16:40:25 GMT -5
These days I seem to holiday in the Canaries where hotels do housekeeping pretty much daily whether you want them to or not, and with that level of footfall I prefer to keep my passports, keys, wallet camera etc in a safe if they're not on me. Even if not being suspicious of the hotel staff, it's easier for an opportunist to sneak into a room quickly when the cleaners are going round in a lot of hotel complexes, I'd rather not take chances.
I usually only take a card /bit of cash /phone with me and leave the majority of things in my room, especially if I'm heading to a beach.
I always empty the safe the last night I'm in the room, I don't think I'd ever make it out the door without checking for my passport a hundred times anyway so I don't need the shoe trick but I figure that's a good one if you're less neurotic!
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