How safe is that SAFe?

This guys YouTube channel shows a few safes you might find in a hotel room setting and how easy they could be opened

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmMo73yIv1A

Getting kicked out of a casino and not being able to return to your room at the hotel seems like an easy way for the casino to confiscate what you left in your safe when they have the master key.

Don't forget bumping, magnets, and the master code that is common among most hospitality "safes".

I assume 10 seconds or less from someone with half a clue what they're doing.

I once left some cash in a safe in Montreal. The hotel called me and informed me of said fact. Fortunately, I was still around, at another hotel. When I returned they just handed me an envelope with the cash. I'm not sure what my point is, but they clearly do have a master code or way to get in.

When I first got to my room at the El Cortez one trip, the safe was locked. I called the front desk and a few minutes later, the manager on duty, the top security guy on duty, and a second guard responded. The manager told me the master code changes daily and only a couple of people know it. I was surprised they didn't film the opening but it was empty. In a big resort, this happening even a few times a day adds up to a lot of lost productivity.

In every travelling security class I have taken, the safe (or even not having one at all) is not looked at as a critical component (in fact that "room safe" is the answer in "Which security feature does not matter for overall room selection at a hotel" or countless variations of that question). (Distance from stairwells, number of entry points to hall, physical door security, nearest security camera, and proximity to other rooms are all more important).

The thought being that if a militant group breaks into your room, it really does not matter at that point, them taking your cash and jewelry are the least of your concerns...

My thought process is, if I have something valuable enough with me to be in the safe, its not being in the room when I am not there, and if I am there and somebody breaks in, then whatever the valuable is suddenly does not matter.

For casinos, deposit your cash and casino chips with the cage after a session (some casinos even have safety deposit boxes in a guarded location) if you have alarming amounts left and you are worried, its much safer than even the best room safes (which still have no insurance if somebody breaks in and takes it anyway, and yes I am aware that safe deposit boxes are -generally- technically the same, still safer, but that means depositing it to your casino account is the safest.....)

Though to be fair, that channel is awesome, and that guy is clearly skilled. I doubt the vast majority of criminals have his knowledge of opening locks (and if even they do, a deadbolt on the door is always best, even against inside threats who would have access to master keys/codes, which goes back to my point of you being the most important thing in the room). Also, to be even more fair, he opens locks in very controlled environments, I have never seen him do a scenario (where he has to pick a lock after gaining access to a restricted area -such as a key checked hotel floor- in an upright door as it would be, at an awkward angle while hiding or blending in from the suspicion of employees and random people walking around). Picking a lock is one thing, getting access to the lock and then leaving with the contents without anyone being able to ID you, is something totally different.

Its like somebody saying "Oh I can pick the lock in the Oval Office, so basic, what a joke, and the President is protected by it, heh what a joke", well yeah, probably, almost anyone can (at least the ceremonial one) even if they are just randomly fiddling they will get it eventually, but can you get to it, and get out? There is more to physical security than the single lock on any one door....
Some locks are more for privacy than security (and that includes some safes).

Changing the master code on older safes would take one of the trusted code-knowers going to every room that was vacated and fumbling with the buttons for a few minutes.

I'm sure that there have been technological enhancements over the past few years, but these steel boxes with the fancy keypads don't come cheap. I can't see a hotel upgrading unless the room is getting a remodel.



I think that while a trickroller suggests that the mark start the shower warming up ("I'll be right in once it's steamy!"), the safe could be popped.

(If you were counting, 11 seconds, with LPL going slowly and narrating.)

Back in the glory days when I worked for entertainment as a tour accountant traveling through out the US and outside the country, I use to travel with tens or in some cases 100’s of thousands of dollars in cash depending on the size of the tour. Damn cash is just a freaking ball and chain. Every time I checked into a hotel, I used the hotel safety deposit boxes, not the room safe. Hotel might not be liable for things left in the room, including the safe. Stupid, when I traveled in Europe, I had to carry USD, Euros and British Pounds and other local currencies if I were in odd countries that had their own currencies. Had to pay our touring staff in USD for per diem, bus and Truck drivers in pounds and everything else in Euros for the most part. Customs always asked why I had so much cash and I said I’m with so and so, we are doing a show in your country tomorrow and we spend lots of money and they let me through. Only country I had a problem with was flying into CDG, they wanted to count the cash.

Seems like the hotel safe, or getting front money is the way to go, unless you're MDawg.