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A couple of weeks ago, I checked into a resort on the beach in Florida (full review to come later this week). Check-in was unusually long because I was using two separate free night certificates for a two-night stay.
Anyway, once they finally figured out how to let me keep the same room for two nights, they told me there is no daily cleaning service. That was fine by me.
So, with the idea in my head that nobody would be entering our room, I didn’t bother to put our valuables in the safe. My daughter and I went to the beach that night with no issues.
The next day, we left for the beach in the morning. We enjoyed the beach so much that we ate lunch on the beach and stayed until the mid-afternoon. Then, we made our way to the resort’s pools and lazy river for a few hours. Late in the afternoon, we finally returned to our room.
Our room door was OPEN! What?!?! As I walked up to our room I exclaimed my surprise and shock. Our neighbors who were also on the elevator with us said that the door had been open most of the day.
In a panic, I checked to see if our valuables were still there. And by valuables, I mean our passports, my vaccine card, wallet, Disney tickets, etc. Thankfully, everything was still there.
I called the front desk to let them know that our door was open. The front desk worker could not have cared less. “Oh, you probably left it open when you left.” Nope. I am sorta OCD about pulling hotel doors shut since some of them are tricky.
What I presume happened is that there was a miscommunication with the cleaning staff and the front desk. The cleaning staff probably thought we were checking out that day since we had two single-day reservations. When they opened our door to turn it over, they saw all of our stuff. Not sure why they wouldn’t bother to close the door.
It’s hard to say what really happened. The bottom line is that I feel lucky that our stuff wasn’t stolen. I was just too lazy to put our stuff in the room safe since I assumed nobody would be entering. But now, I will make it a point to lock up our valuables every time.
Do you always put your valuables in the room safe? Has anything been stolen from your hotel room?
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
I have more than half of my reservation requiring combining two or several nights. We made a habit of re-keying our room key every consecutive days. It is annoying, but the only way to make sure we don’t lock out and can stay at the same room. Every single time, they told me to re-key. There is no automatic way of combining reservation.
I’ve been working in the hotel industry for decades and there is an innkeepers law in several states that most guests are not aware. Even if you leave valuables on your safe the hotel is liable only for a couple of hundreds dollars (FL is $1,000). Also it is very rare housekeeping staff steals items because they are afraid of being prosecuted and lose their job, but it is not impossible. Most crimes happens in a organized matter (2-3 employees have access to the rooms with master keys and safe master keys). They are always looking for cash and jewelry. I had to deal with some thefts in my career and it was always a very organized matter.
That being said when I travel I do use the safe for passports, but I also have pictures on my phone and my cloud of my documents.
@Tania Thanks for your insight!
Room safes aren’t there to protect you from maids. Unlike what people think, It’s extremely rare for hotel stuff to steal from you. The whole idea of putting your valuables in the room safe is to protect yourself from outside opportunistic thieves so even if they gained entrance to your room they wouldn’t steal anything valuable.
Ironically, when hotel employees do steal, they might go for your safe with a master key. They will rarely steal all your cash or any cash at all, but your credit cards’ numbers are a fair game.
Surprised you left those sitting out being a bit ocd. I really don’t have that much trust! Glad everything was still there.
@Lynn Well I’m not OCD about everything, but on past trips we’ve had room doors that don’t close all the way unless you pull them so I’ve gotten in the habit of always checking. The incident did freak me out enough to use the safe consistently in the future.
That is a pretty large assumption on your part. Always easier to blame others.
@Pierre The hotel made an equally large assumption. I guess we will never know. Regardless, I will be regularly using the safe from now on.
True except the hotel did not publish their assumptions online for all to see.
I’ve used a hotel safe maybe once. This will probably bite me at some point. Haven’t had anything walk away to my recollection, but then again, the most valuable things I have don’t exceed personal documents (if international), a laptop, and a camera. If someone wants my clothing, they’re welcome to it.
@Ian I used to be good about using the safe every time. We’ve never had anything taken, thankfully. It’s really the passports I’m most worried about.
But you’re okay with someone taking your passport, laptop, and camera?
Ahhh that really sucks as that should not have happened. I wonder if calling front desk that morning to remind them of your special situation would have avoided that issue.
For me, my biggest issue is asking for late checkout, getting it approved, and only later to find out they deactivated my key. I wish front desk had proactively reactivate my card key knowing I have late checkout or at the very least inform me that I have to stop by front desk to have the key deactivated for late checkout.
@Joey Yeah, I probably should have called to remind them, but check-in was such an ordeal that I thought they had it resolved. The deactivated key sounds frustrating for sure!