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Several travel sites advocate leaving your passport in the hotel safe during the day. I disagree with this advice. Many electronic safes have a security vulnerability. The administrative pass code was never reset from the factory settings. This is like leaving the administrative password on your computer set to “password”. Most hacks know about this vulnerability and try it as the first thing when breaking in. The same holds true for the safe.
Here’s a YouTube video showing how easy it is to break into a safe:
An alternative is to leave your valuables with the front desk. Make sure that you get a receipt describing all the items checked with the staff. This includes the amount of cash left with the staff. Also make sure the person taking your valuables signs the receipt. Better still? Leave your valuables at home and carry your passport and cash in your money belt.
Wow, I had no idea. Unfortunately I really hate carrying a money belt when I’m travelling. I guess that means I have to leave everything with office reception (which also makes me nervous.
By the way, I’m a new reader and I LOVE your blog.
Not all hotel safe are easy to hack. You could check more information at http://www.experienceihc.com/safes/ for better understanding.
It doesn’t matter. The average traveler can’t tell the difference between a secure safe and an insecure safe. They would have to go looking at brands and installation procedures for each hotel to verify that the safe is good. The weak point isn’t the safe itself, but how the safe is managed by the hotel. If they are negligent with the installation or negligent with the default password then there is a breach that no safe manufacturer can overcome. It also doesn’t matter if 15% of the safes are OK when I need 100% reliability. It’s just better to not trust the safe.
I particularly recommend carrying your passport (and at least one credit card) with you (preferably in a hidden pocket or money belt) when on day excursions from a cruise. If you miss getting back to the ship in time, you have all you need to book a flight, if necessary, to get to your next port of call!