10 Things you need to know about hotel room safes
Whilst choosing a standard budget safe instead of a hotel designed
specifically for hotel use might seem like a good way to save money,
it really is not! Hotel safes have management override facilities that
allow you to gain access to the safe if your guests lose the keys
or forget the combination that they have chosen. If your guests
forget the combination of a standard combination safe then there is no
way to gain access to the contents of the safe without damaging the
safe, rendering it useless.
The Burton Standard Hotel Safe is a basic model security safe designed for those on a tight budget ... but it still has a management override facility to gain access should your guests forget their combination code.
With an Electronic digital hotel safe (Battery operated), guests must enter a code of their choosing in order to lock the safe and this same code must be used again to open the safe again, if the guest forgets their combination code then, depending on the type
of safe, it can be opened using either a master code or key, which is retained by the hotel management.
Hotel safes are available that can be opened and closed with a
swipe card instead of a combination or key, this means that the same
card used for unlocking the room door could be used to open the safe or if the hotel prefers the customer could use their own credit card.
The Phoenix Imperial Cardswipe Audit Safe 0988 (pictured) can be opened with a combination code or a credit or swipe card.
Whilst thefts from hotel rooms are extemely rare, the presence of
a safe in your hotel room, could be the difference between a guest
choosing your hotel or staying with one of your competitors.
Because hotel safes have a management override function, there is
the possibility that a guest could accuse staff at the hotel of
gaining unathorised access to the safe, so some hotel safes have an
audit function which will list up to the last 100 opening times of the
safe.
The Phoenix Imperial Digital Audit Safe 0987 (pictured) has an audit trail facility
Carefully check the size of safe before ordering, some hotel safes
are too small to accomodate a laptop computer, and larger hotel safes
are only large enough for laptops with 15" or 16" displays.
Thieves tend to target valuables that are stored in a central
location to make stealing worthwhile and in-room safes eliminate the
downsides to safety deposit boxes and larger safes that are stored
behind the hotel reception desk.
The Burton Superior Hotel Room Safe (pictured) designed for valuable items such as laptops,jewellery, travellers cheques, cash, credit cards, cameras etc.
Recent research based on surveys of international hotel chains,
suggests that most business travellers prefer the security of digital
hotel room safes because they are simple to use and allow them to
choose their own access code.
Hotel room safes provide a secure place for travellers to keep
travel documents, travel papers, travellers cheques, jewellery and up
to £1000 in cash other than traditional safety deposit boxes or safes
that are kept in the hotel reception area.
The Sagasafe Electronic Digital safe(pictured) is suitable for both general use and hotel guest use, it offers protection for up to £1000 cash if bolted down and agreement is established with your insurer.
Remember to have any hotel safes that you buy securely bolted down,
or your guests may decide they like it enough to take it home!
Safeoptions.co.uk sell a wide range of hotel safes, and all these safes should be considered useful for multi-occupancy environments such as hospitals, boarding
schools, student apartments, hostels, prisons, remand centres and residential care homes.
