Do you trust the electronic safe in the hotels?

[csabo]

No way would I trust a hotel safe.

My "stash" of cash is kept in a locked bag inside my locked suitcase, every day I count my "stash" and the amount in my wallet, and write it down,

The only time my figures were out, I was missing 100 US dollars exactly. That was the only occasion in the past few years that I have used the hotel safe, it was a respectable hotel that lulled me into stupidity.

If my "stash" is stolen there will be a damaged suitcase and broken lock from the money bag as evidence, if items go "missing" from the safe there is no evidence.

I stay in hotels and apartments for about 300 nights per year.

What if the suitcase just goes missing?

[RT555]

Working in hotels all over the world, I would NEVER LEAVE ANYTHING in the room safe...and I WOULD NEVER PUT IN FRONT DUAL KEY FRONT DESK SAFE.

[thairookie]

As I mentioned in another thread, I plan to exchange 200,000 bht for MYR ringgit @ Superrich. So with foreign currency, I'm not able to deposit the money in any bank in Thailand.

I would like to bring the money to Malaysia, and there is a huge difference between the exchange rates offered by Superrich and one that goes via TT.

I'm surprised that some actually think that depositing the money with front desk safe is in fact not safe.

[Mcffee]

The best safe is a place where nobody expects to find money, like in a book and other objects hidden at the bottom of a bag.

[NickJ]

Ha ha ha , About as much as I would trust the laundry with lost change.

I would rather leave stuff hidden in my car.

or since I live here not bring it in the first place. I was paranoid enough when I built my house and built in a few sunk in cement floor safes..

[monkeycountry]

Ha ha ha , About as much as I would trust the laundry with lost change.

I would rather leave stuff hidden in my car.

or since I live here not bring it in the first place. I was paranoid enough when I built my house and built in a few sunk in cement floor safes..

A few? Who are you? Bill Gates? :-)

[canuckoverseas]

Stash it behind the bar fridge... Behind the air conditioner vent.... Inside the toilet.... Behind the closet.... Get creative.

[lucifer666]

Once had a safe in a BKK hotel, and you could swivel the keypad to the side and push a straightened paperclip into a hole that opened it. Like ejecting a cd from a dead cd player. I never used one again

[kinmaew]

depends, on those cheap ones with the circle disc thing you need to turn to close, forget it. For the quality electronic ones that open the door by themselves I think ok.

With the cheaper ones, here is what I do, keep my money on me, go out for breakfast in the morning, when housekeeping is done for the day, I lock my cash in my bag and put in closet in room, its safe never stolen. Key is to do all this AFTER room service are done for the day. Another tip, keep your cash locked in the motorbike seat when at the beach, with all the motorbikes how the hell will they know which one has cash, obviously do this BEFORE you get to the beach. Enjoy and enjoy NOT giving 180 baht per ATM fee to Thai authorities who will piss your money away anyway.

[thairookie]

depends, on those cheap ones with the circle disc thing you need to turn to close, forget it. For the quality electronic ones that open the door by themselves I think ok.

With the cheaper ones, here is what I do, keep my money on me, go out for breakfast in the morning, when housekeeping is done for the day, I lock my cash in my bag and put in closet in room, its safe never stolen. Key is to do all this AFTER room service are done for the day. Another tip, keep your cash locked in the motorbike seat when at the beach, with all the motorbikes how the hell will they know which one has cash, obviously do this BEFORE you get to the beach. Enjoy and enjoy NOT giving 180 baht per ATM fee to Thai authorities who will piss your money away anyway.

I leave my door tag outside at all times to inform the housekeeper not to disturb.

[spidermike007]

I am referring to hotels in Bangkok and Pattaya.

Do you trust them enough to put something like baht 200,000 inside ?

No. No. No. No. Absolutely not. Far after to bring a luggage lock, and keep money, laptops, and valuables in your luggage, locked up. In over 20 years of travels, I have never had an issue with this system. Looks like any old piece of luggage, with a lock on it. I do it all the time. I never use the safes.

[RandomSand]

The manager of the hotel will have a key for the safe.

[DogNo1]

I recently inadvertently left my safe open when I left the hotel. When the maids came in and found the safe open, they promptly left the room and slipped a form under the door saying that they could not clean the room because the safe was opened. Upon inspection, I found nothing missing. I like this hotel!

[gk10002000]

Saw on Pattaya 1 news other day a Turkish gentleman brought a street hooker back to his hotel room, she slipped him a mickey and when he came to the room safe was open and all his valuables stolen, so she managed to get it open some way. So I guess these safes are not safe at all if you're bringing dodgy people back.

I suspect the lass simply watched him open the save and knew the combo. Even if she gets only one or two numbers correct, she can by trial and error get it open in a reasonable amount of time. Or, maybe she has a good ear. I can't recall if the keys have different tones or not. Maybe she practices a lot and know the tones and which number was pressed!

[joshstiles]

no i dont trust the safes...hotels...taxis...people...the list is endless

[CapeCobra]

Hide your valuables. Then put a note in the safe saying "Gotcha! Have you noticed the camera? Watch yourself on Youtube."

Then lock.

[sstuff3]

Judge for yourself.

Those of you using a solenoid lock, even on a UL-rated safe are prone to these type of openings. Using a VdS or EN-rated safe and safe lock is the safest. VdS and EN-rated safes do not allow solenoid locks for this very reason.

[thairookie]

So most of you would agree that keeping your cash in your hard case luggage with built-in number lock and additional padlock is a better option than leaving the cash in the electronic safe?

[slightlychilled]

So most of you would agree that keeping your cash in your hard case luggage with built-in number lock and additional padlock is a better option than leaving the cash in the electronic safe?

I don't think you can summarise it like that. It depends on the standard of your accomodation, the standard of the safe and its placement and fitting in the room. Each situation will be different, the key is knowing what to look out for to come to an informed decision.

Also bear in mind that a thief does not need to open your locked case, he can simply pick it up and take the lot. The majority of theft from hotel rooms is opportunist so needs to be really quick - the more obstacles in the way the quicker the thief will move on.

[slightlychilled]

So most of you would agree that keeping your cash in your hard case luggage with built-in number lock and additional padlock is a better option than leaving the cash in the electronic safe?

I don't think you can summarise it like that. It depends on the standard of your accomodation, the standard of the safe and its placement and fitting in the room. Each situation will be different, the key is knowing what to look out for to come to an informed decision.

Also bear in mind that a thief does not need to open your locked case, he can simply pick it up and take the lot. If the safe is bolted to flimsy plywood then the likelihood the fixtures and fittings you have secured your case to are also flimsy. The majority of theft from hotel rooms is opportunist so needs to be really quick - the more obstacles in the way the quicker the thief will move on.

[hawker9000]

200,000THB is kind of a lot of money to be trying to protect in a hotel room safe (or any other hiding place in the room you might choose) OR on your person. If you have a regular need to carry around or travel with that much, you should look into opening a thai bank account. That said, I've never had a problem with hotel room safes, though I don't usually stay in the cheaper places.

There've been cases of reception desk lock boxes being robbed, en masse, as well. Graveyard shift employees fall asleep, get drugged or might even be in on the robbery. While these lockboxes have the advantages others have mentioned, they have the distinct DISADVANTAGE of aggregating a lot of people's valuable stuff in one place - that makes them worth targeting; it just takes a plan. Nothing is fullproof. In a large, reputable hotel, the lockboxes are probably relatively secure (but then again, in a large, reputable hotel, security and employee supervision & hiring standards are probably such that the room safes are reasonably secure as well).

I think there's a lot to be said for just plain keeping a low profile. That means not sporting expensive jewelry, clothing, luggage, etc., and most certainly not letting anyone - and I mean ANYONE (that includes exchange booth tellers, passersby at ATMs, store clerks, hotel staff, waiters, taxi drivers, police ...) see that you have that kind of cash. It also means not leaving cash or valuables lying around in open view in your room either.

[thairookie]

200,000THB is kind of a lot of money to be trying to protect in a hotel room safe (or any other hiding place in the room you might choose) OR on your person. If you have a regular need to carry around or travel with that much, you should look into opening a thai bank account. That said, I've never had a problem with hotel room safes, though I don't usually stay in the cheaper places.

Thanks. Like I mentioned, it's 200,000 THB worth of MYR, as I intend to have the THB changed to MYR and bring the cash to Malaysia.

As far as I know, without a work permit it's impossible to open a foreign currency account. If I could deposit foreign currency in Thailand, I would bring 500,000 THB worth of MYR out instead. But 200,000 THB worth of MYR I'm already looking at 200 sheets of MYR notes.

[samsensam]

was talking to a loss adjuster friend just this morning. he'd returned from pattaya where a two room safes were robbed in a hotel there.

the thief drilled a hole in the side of the safe - where the metal is thin - pressed the reset button and bingo!

so i would not trust the safe with anything particularly valuable.

[hawker9000]

200,000THB is kind of a lot of money to be trying to protect in a hotel room safe (or any other hiding place in the room you might choose) OR on your person. If you have a regular need to carry around or travel with that much, you should look into opening a thai bank account. That said, I've never had a problem with hotel room safes, though I don't usually stay in the cheaper places.

Thanks. Like I mentioned, it's 200,000 THB worth of MYR, as I intend to have the THB changed to MYR and bring the cash to Malaysia.

As far as I know, without a work permit it's impossible to open a foreign currency account. If I could deposit foreign currency in Thailand, I would bring 500,000 THB worth of MYR out instead. But 200,000 THB worth of MYR I'm already looking at 200 sheets of MYR notes.

The numbers you're using suggest you're already aware, but there is a limit to the amount of THB and foreign currencies you can take out of Thailand. I think based on some cursory research (so somebody please correct me!) that limit is 50,000THB, BUT, if it's to a country which borders Thailand (e.g., Malaysia), then the limit is 500K THB. I think the limit on foreign currencies is $20,000 USD-equivalent - you seem to be well under that. But any or all of those numbers may be out-of-date. I don't know about foreign currency accounts - no experience with them. But I've seen others posting from time to time about them, so the expertise is definitely here in the forum. I wasn't aware they required a work permit, but others will know.

If you'll be staying in a reasonably upscale hotel, I don't think you'll have a problem security-wise. 'Just be very circumspect with the cash. In making your exchange transactions, you might want to consider using more than one place.

Edited March 29, 2015 by hawker9000

[thairookie]

was talking to a loss adjuster friend just this morning. he'd returned from pattaya where a two room safes were robbed in a hotel there.

the thief drilled a hole in the side of the safe - where the metal is thin - pressed the reset button and bingo!

so i would not trust the safe with anything particularly valuable.

Thailand has loss adjusters?

Did the burglars receive a tip off from the hotel staff that the 2 special rooms were targeted ?

[KittenKong]

As I mentioned in another thread, I plan to exchange 200,000 bht for MYR ringgit @ Superrich. So with foreign currency, I'm not able to deposit the money in any bank in Thailand.

I would like to bring the money to Malaysia, and there is a huge difference between the exchange rates offered by Superrich and one that goes via TT.

Could you not just do the exchange at the last minute before leaving, and keep the THB in a Thai bank account till that time?

I'm surprised that the rate for MYR should really be much better for cash than for an electronic transfer (I would believe it readily for Myanmar or somewhere like that), but I take your word for it.

[simon43]

I own small hotels with room safes in each room. I have the master key and can open the safes.

I am also the TPV in this area. I know of incidents where other hotel owners who have the master keys to their safes have stolen cash from those safes.

I know of hotel managers on Phi-Phi who have stolen iPhones from guest rooms.

I'm not talking about the cleaning staff - this is the owner/manager.

Why should you trust the person who has the master key, even if they are the hotel owner/manager?

Your 200,000 baht should be in a bank.

[thairookie]

As I mentioned in another thread, I plan to exchange 200,000 bht for MYR ringgit @ Superrich. So with foreign currency, I'm not able to deposit the money in any bank in Thailand.

I would like to bring the money to Malaysia, and there is a huge difference between the exchange rates offered by Superrich and one that goes via TT.

Could you not just do the exchange at the last minute before leaving, and keep the THB in a Thai bank account till that time?

I'm surprised that the rate for MYR should really be much better for cash than for an electronic transfer (I would believe it readily for Myanmar or somewhere like that), but I take your word for it.

This is also an option that I'm considering. But will have factor in fluctuation of rates and meeting the time schedule.

Superrich sells MYR @ 8.86

For 200,000 BHT I will be getting 22,573 MYR

If I TT via Bangkok Bank, it's 8.94

For 200,000 BHT I will be getting 22,371 MYR

On top of that I have to pay the remitting bank and the receiving bank.

[maidee]

maybe someone can invest some kind of spray bomb remote sensor bomb, that you can put in your safe and than watch people running around with pink paint on their face

[MacWalen]

Simple and short answer. No!