Whether you’re jet-setting for leisure or embarking on a business trip, hotels are often considered a haven of security. However, the seemingly impenetrable hotel room safe might not be as foolproof as it appears. In this article, we unveil the hidden vulnerabilities of hotel safes and explore the reasons why they might not be the best choice for safeguarding your valuables.
External Access: Who Holds the Keys?
It’s not uncommon for people to travel with expensive items that require enhanced security. A hotel room safe offers an easy option to lock up your valuables right in front of you, or so you might think. Hotel safes provide some security, but if you’re expecting some sort of guarantee that everything will be protected, this isn’t possible.
External access is a simple concept. The more people who have access to something, the greater the chance that someone can interfere. And in this case, with locking up important items, you want as few people as possible with access to a hotel room safe.
This can get complicated because hotel safes are technically hotel property. Guests don’t own the safes and therefore have no control over who has access. From the hotel’s perspective, they need somebody with universal access to all of the safes for the following reasons:
- Somebody forgets their combination.
- A guest accidentally leaves items inside the safe after they checkout.
- Safe isn’t working properly and requires maintenance. Hotel chains need to be ready for any of those circumstances because guests store highly valuable possessions in hotel safes and it becomes a liability issue. They must provide assistance when problems occur to deliver quality services to their guests.
Outdated Materials: The Achilles Heel of Technology
As we touched on toward the beginning of this article, hotel safes are usually electronic with the ability to reset the combination. Electronic locks as a general method of security can be extremely effective. However, the success of electronically powered devices is based on one crucial component – technology upgrades.
Hotel safes are no different than the technology in your car, smartphone, or home appliances. They’re everchanging, and the latest product is more advanced than the current or previous products. Technology is constantly evolving to make improvements, and electronic locks and safes are no different.
Technological advancement poses a massive challenge for hotels because of cost. That means one safe to each room would be very expensive, as would replacing every safe when newer electronic safe models hit the market.
You can test this concept by looking at a hotel safe the next time you’re staying at a hotel. Does the technology look up to date? And then, based on your answer, how comfortable do you feel putting personal possessions inside? If you have even the slightest hesitation when answering these questions, you should proceed forward with caution and seriously consider not using your hotel room’s safe.
Another issue that might cause a major security concern is poor safe maintenance. Hotels can easily forget to regularly service their safes and ensure that the safe is in prime working condition. Instances like this often lead to malfunctions, which is why proper care and maintenance can go a long way to decrease the likelihood that your items will be exposed.
Easy To Breach: The Alarming Vulnerabilities
Maybe the most important reason why you shouldn’t use hotel room safes is because of how easily someone can break into them. It doesn’t take much to bypass an electronic hotel safe if you know what you’re doing. Some little tricks and tactics can be utilized to open a hotel safe without the combination.
Before we dive deeper into this section, please note this information is for educational purposes only. At no point does any of the information shared justify breaking the law or using this as advice to steal other people’s property without their permission. That would be a crime, and we don’t condone that.
One of the main flaws that some safes and locks face is the fact that they are keyed. A keyed lock means that a burglar will always have a point of access through which they can attack and compromise your lock. But with an electronic safe or lock, there is no key, so the entry point for a burglar takes an unconventional approach.
This approach is called safe bouncing. It may take some practice, but this method only requires a simple maneuver. You begin by picking up the safe and holding it over a surface. From there, you bounce the safe off the surface while turning the lock at the same time. If executed properly, the safe’s bolt-work will be shocked into an unlocked state for a split second.
Electronic safes are also susceptible to unwanted invasion via commonly used tools. Certain mass-produced safes found in hotel rooms can be opened with generic equipment. There’s a simple answer for this – money.
Some safe-making companies haven’t changed their locking mechanisms in several decades because they don’t have to. Hotels, businesses, and consumers still pay for electronic safes no matter what, so these large companies aren’t incentivized to switch things up.
Obvious Location: Playing into the Hands of Opportunistic Thieves
Sometimes the best security for personal items is being unpredictable and storing valuables in a place where the chances of someone finding it are heavily reduced. Criminals and burglars depend on people to use similar patterns, including where people hide their safes.
Criminals look for safes in areas that are out of the way of public view but still easily accessible to residents. For example, for a home safe, the main target would be the master bedroom, including the master bathroom and closets within the bedroom. Unfortunately for hotels, the rooms are too small, and you typically find safes in the same place every time.
Hotel room safes are commonly stored either in the closet or under the television set next to the microwave. The variance of hiding spots for a safe is low because of how hotel rooms are arranged in a limited space. This non-discrete safe location is too much of a giveaway and automatically diminishes the unpredictability factor, as well as the overall security of your personal items.
Best Choice for Security: Introducing 1st Choice Locksmith
Staying in hotels is a necessary part of traveling that we’ve all had to endure. Depending on the hotel, your room has a personalized safe that seems like an adequate place to secure your valuables. But this can be a false sense of security as you’ve now learned about the potential problems associated with hotel safes.
There’s no such thing as the perfect safe with the ability to protect your valuables completely, but you can make smart choices that limit your risk. Hotel safes are a risky venture when it comes to locking up your possessions, and it’s probably in your best interest to explore alternative options.
When it comes to securing your valuables, consider the expertise of 1st Choice Locksmith. Our professional locksmith services prioritize your safety and ensure that your belongings are protected with state-of-the-art security measures. Don’t compromise on your security – choose 1st Choice Locksmith for peace of mind.
Closing Words: Reevaluating Your Security Strategy
Staying informed about the potential pitfalls of hotel safes is the first step towards a more secure travel experience. While hotels aim to provide a safe environment, it’s essential to be aware of the limitations of the existing security measures. Explore alternative options, like the services offered by 1st Choice Locksmith, to elevate the protection of your valuable possessions during your travels. Your peace of mind is worth the investment in reliable and secure solutions.
