Are hotel room safes tamper evident?
I know that hotel room safes have a master key and are not considered very secure.
Let's suppose I'm not worried about theft, but about a person with the master key opening the safe, messing with its contents and then closing it back to the previous combination so I wouldn't even know that anyone opened it.
Is this a possibility?
For the sake of the question, let's ignore techniques that are very complicated or take a long time to do (e.g. dismantling the hardware to read the memory chip, or just brute-forcing the combination), and let's suppose I wiped the keypad so the combination won't be easy to see.
I suppose the question comes down to one thing. Can the master key be used to read the combination?
Best Answer
Hotel room safes are not tamper evident and not particularly safe. Hotel staff (and others) have the capability to open them without evidence. If you need tamper evidence put the contents in a tamper evident bag. This is what many security conscious companies are doing.
Many have an electrical port that a small battery operated device is plugged into and that opens the safe.
In one case it was evident that a laptop had been removed from the safe, disassembled, HD copied and case reassembled but there were a couple of screws that were not properly re-seated.
See Hotel Room Safes: They May Not Be as Safe as You Think for more information.
Excerpt: "These units DO NOT have a hotel override, it reveals the guest PIN."
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Can hotel safes be trusted?
No hotel safe is 100% reliable Just about every hotel has a master code or a master key that allows the hotel staff to open up a locked safe. This is because many guests will inevitably forget or lose their combinations to unlock the safe.Is there a master key for hotel safes?
Most hotels will set their own master code when the safes are installed but, unfortunately, there are some who don't bother or forget or didn't know they needed to do that, so end up staying with the default code which is usually something really simple like 9999, or 000000, or 1111.Should I use the safe in a hotel?
Use the hotel's office safe. It's usually more secure than an in-room safe. Hotels are often liable for theft from lobby safes but not for theft from in-room safes. If you're traveling with fine jewelry or heirlooms, the safe-deposit box is the place for them.How can I make sure my hotel room is safe?
That starts by following a few key safety tips.Don't Trust Your Hotel Room Safe
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Answer 2
The key can just open the safe and not read the combination.
The key can be used:
- if the customer forgets his PIN code
- if the batteries are low and the electronic mechanism does not work anymore
- if the customer leaves his room without unlocking the safe
Otherwise, you can sue the hotel if you prove that the safe was locked.
The hotel is typically not liable for loss or damage of their guests valuable if the loss was caused by the guest's own fault. ... If you don't use the safe and your valuables are stolen, some states will hold that the hotel is not liable since you could have protected your valuables but did not do so.
Answer 3
I sent an email with this exact question to several manufacturers of safes that I found from a random google search. This is what I received back:
In four cases, they told me that it is not possible to retrieve the PIN.
In one case, they admitted that it is possible.
In two cases, I received no reply at all.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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