Preventing Theft While Travelling: In Your Hotel/Hostel
"While she was sleeping, her laptop got stolen, mine did not."
I’ve stayed in countless places all over the world from hostels to hotels to Airbnb to CouchSurfing. Here are my top tips for preventing theft in your accommodation no matter where you are in the world.
Be aware of where you are staying and ensure the reviews are good.
This might seem like a no-brainer but you’d be surprised how many people don’t check reviews. Personally, I don’t stay anywhere where there is a really low guest rating if it can be avoided. A good review doesn’t mean your things won’t get stolen, it just means there is less chance. A good review score shows that the management cares about what the people who stay at their place think. The safety of your belonging being one of those thoughts.
Don’t stay in the cheapest dumps.
I met a girl who pushed their bed up against their room door, because they were scared the owner was going to come in during the night. I don’t know what type of accommodation that was but apparently, it was just the man and her. Maybe it was all in her head and while that’s more of a safety thing rather than theft, it does fit into this section nicely.
More expensive places tend to have better security, facilities, and staff. Staff who are paid well have less reason to steal things – it’s not worth them losing their job. Note that doesn’t mean you need to always stay at expensive hotels, some hostels can have great security. The key is balancing affordability with security – sort of like an insurance policy.
Another thing to look out for is if someone not staying at your accommodation can freely walk in and out, that is a huge red flag. In developing countries, good places will have some kind of gated security or reception by the entrance. Normally it’s other travellers you have to watch for – people who are there one day and gone the next. But if people from outside can come in, then you can potentially have people from a developing country having access to items they could sell for months or even years’ worth of earnings. Your items could look like their next big break.
Ensure that your hotel or hostel has a safe or locker and use it.
I stayed in a hostel once where my newly made friend in the room ‘hid’ a laptop in her backpack while I put mine in the provided locker, locked with my own lock. While she was sleeping, her laptop got stolen, mine did not. I had left really early that morning to do tourist stuff so I didn’t hear or see anything, but my valuables I didn’t have on me were all in the locker. It was highly likely that the culprit was this girl (girls can be thieves too) that checked into our room the night before. I don’t remember her socialising with anyone and she was long gone before my friend woke up.
I think people can get complacent especially when there are other friendly people around. People do like seeing the best in others so it’s just a shame that things like this happen. Moral of the story: you should simply make it a habit to lock things up, no one will take it offensively.
Personally, I typically carry a lot of electronics so as part of my accommodation search, it is my requirement for the hotel or hostel to have a safe or locker. I’m talking about the personal ones, not something that is at the reception and managed by the receptionist.
Safes will typically be large enough to store some camera equipment, passports and cash at a minimum. If you’re lucky or staying at one that caters to business travellers, the safe will also fit a 13″ laptop. If the safe can’t fit everything, I prioritise my most valuable things and hide the rest.
Every hotel will have some disclaimer saying that the in-room safe is not actually safe and use the deposit box at the front desk. You may think, wait what? And you’re right. It’s crazy but you read about stories where things can go missing from the in-room safes. I know first hand that management can open it in case you lock your things in there and forget the password. My best advice is that if something goes missing from the safe, it’s the exception, not the norm. Again this is highly dependant on the reputation of the hotel.
Lockers can range from small (safe size) to huge which can fit entire suitcases or backpacks. While fitting an entire suitcase into a locker is probably overkill, it’s nice for a backpack.
Sometimes it can be hard to tell if the accommodation has lockers. All facilities are not always listed, even in apps like Hostelworld. If it comes down to it, I then check photos/reviews for any mention of lockers.
Rarely I’ve been thrust into accommodations without lockers but simply not having one doesn’t automatically mean your things will get stolen – just that the chance is probably slightly higher.
Not all lockers are super secure and most could easily be broken into by a professional thief. The thing to keep in mind, most people are not professional thieves. They don’t carry the tools to open a locker nor do they want to break open something to steal from it. The most common thief is an opportunistic one. One where if they see something just laying around and no one is watching, they will grab it and run. Regardless of where you stay, hostel, hotel, Airbnb, etc, this is the key reason why the methods listed here work. Quite simply put: out of sight, out of mind.
Hostel private room
I’ve stayed in my fair share of hostels and problems can occur if you want a private room in a hostel. A hostel advertising lockers will provide lockers for shared rooms. The private rooms will generally not have a locker since it’s not shared with other guests. Therefore you don’t need a locker, according to management. The precaution here is that staff can enter and usually do to clean the room – much like a hotel room but without a safe. Again, here it is important that the staff are on the more trustworthy side. This can be doubly hard to judge for a hostel since some can have a lot of volunteers (in exchange for board) who are simply backpackers and don’t give a rat’s ass. It is nice to know that not all hostel volunteers are douchebags.
Out of all the private rooms I’ve been in, only 1 had a “locker” which was more of a jewelry-sized lock box barely big enough to fit anything other than your most important documents. Another hostel had lockers in the hallways, at which point the room felt safer since no one would see me take and leave valuables.
Airbnb’s and Couchsurfing
On the opposite spectrum to hotels and hostels, Airbnb’s have an advantage when it comes to security simply because there is far less traffic to them. Often, you will be the only person staying there, like a regular rented apartment. An additional layer of security is people generally do not know the addresses of places without actually booking it.
Unless the host does it, I’d say the chance of getting burglar-ed is quite low – what are the odds of a break-in to that specific place, while you’re staying there? As for the Airbnb host, I’d say the host has more to worry about with guests ruining their place, rather than you being worried about the host stealing your gear. In any case, your main concerns are the reputation of the host and that for any newly made friends you decide to bring there for an after-party on a night out partying.
I couchsurfed once and the guy didn’t lock his apartment door! It was a secure building but it didn’t exactly put my mind at ease given that anyone staying on that level could just walk in. While I’m sure most Couchsurfing hosts lock their front door, it doesn’t feel exactly like the securest option out of all the accommodation types out there. If you travel with a pile of valuables/electronics then you can probably relate to why I don’t really use it.
Don’t leave things lying around
I’ve seen people take out all their stuff and spread it out all over a shared room. I have no idea how they keep track of their things. The more organised you are and less crap you have in the room, the less likely you’ll lose track of your items and the less chance someone will see something ripe for the taking. This goes for both valuables and non-valuables. Admittedly sometimes I do leave my laptop laying out in my room in reputable hotels based on instinct. But if that then gets stolen, that’s ultimately my fault.
Charging electronics
This ties in with the above point but is specific to charging electronics. In today’s age, everybody is charging something whether it’s a battery, phone or laptop. In a hostel, it’s super convenient to charge overnight or unattended but it’s far from the safest thing you can do, yet people still do it, including me.
How do I get away with it?
This ended up being a large topic so I made a separate post specifically on charging electronics here.
Buy a decent lock (for lockers)
Typically most locks people buy for travel, especially travel locks or those cheap brass-looking “Master” locks are trash. However, I still use travel locks on luggage since “TSA approved”. It’s actually funny since although they are TSA approved, I’ve had a lock go missing on 2 separate occasions from my luggage (with nothing gone missing inside as far as I could tell) when taking a flight.
You’d actually be surprised how easy it is to break into those locks with the proper tools and knowledge. Again, most people aren’t exactly travelling with thievery tools with the intention and willingness to break into lockers so it’s not a huge worry.
You don’t want a lock to be “too good” since there is a “hey look what I’m protecting” vibe about it, at which point, the locker itself is probably the weakest point of entry. The lock also needs to fit which larger ones won’t always do. As for what’s good, be sure to check out lock videos on Youtube.
A note on combination locks: A combination lock has it’s own flaws but it’s nice since you don’t need to fuss with a key. If you get one try to get one with 4 digits. 3 digits is the most common so it’s the easiest to buy. I do own some 3 digit ones, but 4 would give me that much more peace of mind. Never buy a 2 digit combination lock – you can brute force it in 10 minutes max.
Don’t lock your bags
This is another “hey look what I’m trying to protect” beacon.
Backpacks normally can’t be locked and there is no point in locking it since someone can simply pick it up and walk out. Most are not slash-proof and knives can be common whether from the hostel’s kitchen or for hiking.
Suitcases shouldn’t be locked when sitting in your accommodation simply because they can be opened much easier than a locked backpack! I only have mine locked during transit.
Chaining your bags down/together
While I don’t do it all the time, I’ve done this before and I know people who chain their backpacks together. The idea behind this is that someone can’t simply take your entire bag or suitcase easily. Sure they might be able to take some high-value items but at least you will still have most of your clothes right? I sometimes do this in hostel private rooms and Airbnbs.
You can buy a chain specifically for this on Amazon such as the steel Pacsafe Wrapsafe anti-theft cable that weighs 0.2kg.
More convenient is a cable lock such as this Pacsafe Retractable Cable Lock also available from Amazon.
Summary
Remember, nothing will make you immune to thieves but that doesn’t mean you should simply do nothing with a “since if a thief wants it, they will steal it anyway” mentality.
It’s all about reducing risk.
Avoid staying in terrible places where staff can be a larger risk. The next biggest risk is opportunistic thieves who aren’t forcefully breaking into your things. Remember the 2 real examples I gave earlier – laptop in bag stolen whereas my laptop in the locker was not. Separately, but coincidentally at the same place, a phone was left charging by the door was stolen. Reduce that risk with all of the above tips.
Anything else is going to be extremely rare for which you can buy a better lock or stay at an even more expensive accommodation. Don’t forget travel insurance can be a nice safety net but typically free (such as that which comes with your credit card) or cheap insurance have an excess of $200 to $300 per item making most things not worth claiming.
That’s my top tips for keeping your things safe in your accommodation while travelling.
Do you have your own methods of warding off thievery? Let me know below 🙂