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Whether you are traveling with a laptop, jewelry, or even expensive medications… you may be wondering the best way to keep these items safe while traveling. Especially if they are items you MUST bring with you when traveling. Knowing hot to us a hotel room safe will help you keep valuables from being stolen.
Lately, I have heard of several hotel room break-ins. Not all in one place, not all in cheap hotels (several in 3-4 diamond hotels), and no… it isn’t the maids in these ones.
From a family having their child’s expensive medications stolen to laptops, one thing I noticed is none of these families utilized the hotel room safe. While that would not 100% guarantee their items would be safe, it is a big help.
If you don’t know how to use a hotel room safe, this is the guide for you. We cover a few different types of safes, and, I even have a video for a pretty standard room safe.
How to Use a Hotel Room Safe
Almost every hotel room across the country these days comes with a safe, but surprisingly, most guests don’t know how to use them properly. While a hotel room safe can’t guarantee that your valuables will be 100% secure, it’s still a much safer option than leaving them out in the open in your hotel room. But even if you do know how to use a hotel safe, there may be one important thing you’re forgetting. Keep reading to find out how to use a hotel room safe.
How to Use a Mechanical Lock Code Safe In A hotel Room
These are older safes and much less common to find in hotel rooms. But just in case you happen to have one, you will want to know how to use it.
Setting the lock code for this type of safe is not all that difficult. Just remember to try your passcode out several times and make sure that it works properly before shutting the door with your valuables inside. To operate:
- Come up with a combination that you can remember
- Press and hold the mechanical button
- While holding that button, set your code
- Now release the mechanical button
- Scramble the code
How to Use an Electronic Code Safe In A Hotel Room
Most hotel room safes are now electronic, which makes them very simple to use, and you don’t have to remember to scramble the code after.
Using an electronic code safe also isn’t that difficult, but remember to practice several times with the door open before locking up your valuables. On most safes, the lock will still engage and disengage with the door open. If it doesn’t, test closing it without anything in it and then unlocking it. To operate this type of safe:
- Come up with a combination that you will be able to remember
- Go ahead and dial the combination once
- Press the # or enter button
- Dial the combination again to confirm your code
- Press enter or # again to set the code (sometimes it’s the * button depending on the model)
How to use an Electronic Code with a Single-Use Code Safe
This is the most common type of safe in a hotel room. Every time you use the safe you will need to choose a code. I suggest using the same code for your entire stay to keep things simple.
This type of safe is extremely easy to figure out for its users. But just like with these other safe models mentioned, it’s best to practice one or two times with the door open just to be safe. To operate:
- While the door is open, dial in a code that you will remember
- Press close. (The door will now be closed and secure)
When you’re ready to open it:
- Dial the code that you came up with
- Press open (you’ll hear the lock release)
- You can now open the door
Video Tutorial – How To Use A Hotel Room Safe (digital Single-Use Code)
Make Sure the Default Password has been Changed
Before you leave your valuables behind, make sure that your safe’s default unlock code is no longer in effect. If it is, anybody and everybody will be able to get into it. A lot of hotel safe models’ default codes are as simple as “0000” or “000000.” Other popular codes include “1-2-3-4” or “1-2-3-4-5-6.”
You can even find out what your hotel model’s default code is by simply looking it up on the internet, so you can bet that thieves are aware of this too. So do not leave your possessions in the safe if the default code has not been reset!
Hotel room safes provide guests with a more secure method to keep their valuables safe while they’re away from home. If you’re still not completely confident in using one, you also have the option of using your own lock to secure your briefcase with your belongings inside.
Did this help you feel confident in how to use a hotel room safe? We hope so. While we hope you never NEED to use it, it can give you great peace of mind when you are able to use it and know you did it correctly.