Hotel Tips #2: Room Safes

As comedian Lenny Bruce commented 50 years ago*, we all tend to be a little protective of our "stuff" - photographs, cell phones, jewelry, our toothbrushes - the collected things we value, for whatever reason. When we travel we're told to protect certain things, too: primarily our passport, traveler's checks, cash, etc.

Every hotel cautions you that you're basically on your own unless you allow them to check your belongings into their safe deposit box at the registration desk, and that's advice everyone would be wise to heed, to a degree - but there's often another option available: the room safe. Many hotels and guest houses provide these, and some have only room safes and no safe keeping at the front desk. Booking sites will tell you what's available 98% of the time.

The example up top today is what you'll see referred to as an "electronic" safe, and from my experience these are by far the most common. I have stayed in one place where you locked the safe with a key you carried with you, but for me that's just one more thing to drop onto the walkway in Jatujak Market while pulling something else out of my pocket, hear drop with a clink down into a squat toilet (don't think too much about that one) or otherwise lose along the way.

Electronic room safes all work in much the same way. When you check into your room you'll find them open and unlocked, with instructions on how to set your own code number to lock and unlock them. Usually that's a matter of pushing a few buttons and then testing it to make sure it works as advertised. I do that after I've looked around the room and out the window, but before I unpack - just in case there's a problem with it that can't be solved quickly and I need to change rooms - which has happened only once. Naturally, that was an earlier trip and I had already unpacked everything. I was not pleased.

Naturally, pick a code you'll find easy to remember and think of someplace you can write it down, perhaps as part of a phone number in case someone else sees it, and try it a couple of times just to get the hang of using it.

On at least three occasions I've had problems with room safes, although two of them were of my own doing. Not following the instructions has caused me to make them inoperable two times, causing me to call the front desk and ask them for help. On one occasion they merely sent the bell boy up (which didn't make me feel too "secure") and another time the manager on duty came up with a witness to key in a master number that cleared the mechanism (that was better). One time I'd set the code and locked the safe to test it, only to find that it wouldn't open again. That time the battery was low enough that it didn't have enough of a charge to open, and that again required a technician to clear up.

Some places (such as the Asia Hotel) have larger dimension electronic safes. The photo up top is one of theirs, and it's large enough to hold a 15" screen laptop. Most are smaller than this, however - so if size is important to you (no cheap jokes here from me today) you may want to think twice about bringing something too large that will need securing, or contact the hotel before booking it and ask for the safe dimensions. I now travel with a netbook that'll fit into any room safe, and find that they're easier to travel with overall.

So... what should you put into your room safe? There are a few standard things I'd suggest: your passport, your traveler's checks, your excess cash and your usual wallet or pocketbook items that you'd carry at home but don't need at a local's market in Hua Hin. In fact, it's always best to only bring what you'll truly need while on holiday and leave your department and grocery store cards at home. That goes for gas, library and other ID cards, too. All you're going to need is your ATM card, the credit card you usually use (and one extra, just in case of an account problem) and maybe your driver's license as an identification card if you don't plan to carry your passport around with you - and that's a separate debate for another post on day to day safety.

Some of you will be planning to bring a guest back to your room, and unless you personally know the person and would trust them to be alone in your home, use the safe to secure anything you wouldn't want to get away before bringing someone back. This avoids two things: opening the safe with a relative stranger in your room, and insulting someone's integrity by doing so. That would cause someone to "lose face", and would sour things. Trust me.

When leaving for any extended period of time - and this is purely a personal call here, depending on your comfort level - put your valuables into the safe and lock them up. When I prepare to leave my room I make sure things like my extra photo memory cards, my netbook, flash drives, camera, MP3 player and other small shiny objects are put into the safe. I only carry the bare basics with me when I go out.

Housekeeping and other hotel staff have never been a problem for me anywhere in Thailand, but it's not wise to leave temptation out and about, in my opinion. Besides, rooms can be broken into and doors and windows can be jimmied. Why take foolish chances?

It's there, it's easy, and it's free. Use the safe.

* As he's done many times during his career George Carlin borrowed this routine idea from LB, but it was his routine originally.