How Safe Is The Hotel Safe Deposit Box?

[hansron]

Has anyone had an incident where money was taken from your safe deposit box in a hotel in Thailand?

It happened to me when I stayed over X Mas for 3 weeks in Khoasan Rd.

A well known group hotel,

I thought that my funds where safe, leaving them there locked up,

while I was travelling to Phuket and other places, and going back to the hotel afet a few days.

I have stayed there many times before as I go to BKK 4X a year.

I never checked until I got home and found $300 missing.

Like to get some feedback please.

I can add later how I found out the missing cash.

How safe is the box, is there another KEY? Thanks

[britmaveric]

Safe I think course depending on how well you trust hotel. I never leave cash in the box, only travelers cheques and other valuables. Never had naught touched.

Has to be a skeleton key I'd assume, however prob manager has only access to this.

[phuketsiam]

I have heard of this before, also credit cards left in the hotel safe being used while the CC owner was on a organised trek, personally I never the trust the hotel safes in Thailand, even the comination lock ones in the rooms can be opened by management, only leave travellers cheques in there as they can be refunded when missing, and you need ID to cash them, much less likely to go missing

[daleyboy]

I agree about leaving cash in your safe in the room. But i have left cash in the safety boxes in the reception of hotel, but you need 2 keys to open them and then i put my own padlock on the box inside.

I also had to put a deposit of 2000baht for the key,as i was told that was the only one and if i lose it then they have to get someone in to drill the lock out, which you could see from quite a few of the boxes.

[Carmine6]

I have heard of this before, also credit cards left in the hotel safe being used while the CC owner was on a organised trek, personally I never the trust the hotel safes in Thailand, even the comination lock ones in the rooms can be opened by management, only leave travellers cheques in there as they can be refunded when missing, and you need ID to cash them, much less likely to go missing

Yeah, with all those boxes in one place it's just too easy to skim a little here and there. I don't worry as much about the in room safes since you'd have to be specifically targeted. Going room to room during the day is riskier than opening the boxes in the dead of night.

I do carry a cable bike lock when I have concerns. I just lock things into my luggage and then cable that to solid points in the closet. Still possible to take, but it's going to be pretty obvious, and it doesn't rely upon them having keys or codes. They won't know if there's just clothes in there or something valuable, especially if the safe is also locked. Also, taking advantage of height, I'll put things on top of the closet if necessary.