Money Boys & Hotel Safes

Very interesting article on money boys at the following site.

http://www.ricequeendiary.com/money-boys/

I'm rather alarmed by the suggestion that all hotel safes in Pattaya have the same master combination for the safe.

Has anyone had a problem with safes at BKK or Pattaya? I don't recall any adverse reports here.

Don't be silly on most electronic safes you can set your own combination although the hotel will have the emergency key for each safe should something go wrong like you get your combination mixed up with your boys age....

[ceejay]

My only personal experience of trouble with room safes was at the Ambiance, 4 years ago. Got back to the room, and either I had forgotten the number, or an internal battery had failed, or something - anyway, I couldn't get in to it.

I asked the desk manager for help, and was told that only one of the owners could open it. I had to wait some time because said owners were not around. When one finally turned up, he had to connect an electronic device of some sort to it. He explained to me that this device was kept in a safe to which the staff did not have access, therefore the wait.

When this didn't work, it was explained to me that they would have to make a call to Bangkok the next day to get assistance opening it. In the end, I wiated until mid-day the next day to get back in. Rather inconvenient at the time, but rather reassuring too - it certainly suggests that the bar boys cannot easily get access to these safes at least.

On the whole my attitude to room security is don't be stupid - but don't be paranoid. Keep temptation out of the way - but don't spend all your time worrying about the contents of your suitcase. Otherwise, you might as well stay at home, or not take boys to your room. I just keep a lot of stuff locked in a suitcase that is also secured with a combination strap. Wouldn't keep a determined thief out for more than a couple of minutes - but couldn't be broken into without making it obvious. If you stay in a hotel that takes ID cards at the desk, then the boy isn't going to walk out with the case under his arm, is he?

What I don't do is take freelancers back to a hotel. That has always seemed to me to take the risk factor a step too high. Maybe if I knew my way about better, had a better undserstanding of what is going on....but I don't.

On a related subject I have heard that master keys are readily available for the cheap padlocks that are available from market stalls, cheap luggage shops etc. around Pattaya and that these padlocks are therefore not much use for securing your luggage. I have no idea whether this is true or not - but I find it easy to believe.

[catawampuscat]

A few month back, I heard of a scam in a small hotel/guest house in Pattaya.
My friend was asked to help an English speaking man( from India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka?) and the man needed to
walk to the other end of the hallway for his cell phone to have better reception.
Somehow in the few minutes he was away from his room, someone (an accomplice) entered his room and broke
open the safe in the closet. He didn't realize it at the time as the closet door was closed but found out later.
Other rooms in the same hotel also had their safes broken into and it seems they had a tool which pushed in or out
the key lock part or maybe it was an inside job and they covered up by breaking the lock..

Point is that shit can happen anywhere and one can minimize the damage by not keeping lots of currency,
expensive jewelry/watches and being very suspicious of strangers asking favours.. :cat:

[Geezer]

While staying at the Ambiance years ago I had an experience almost identical to deejayтАЩs. I accidentally closed the safeтАЩs door very hard causing it to go into amnesia mode.

One of the owners came with an electronic device which he plunged into the safe, then entered a code. When that was unsuccessful he called Bangkok and received information which he entered into the device in order to open the safe.

the article says ...

"In Bangkok, the standard rate for short time is 1000 baht, and 1500 or more for long-time. In Pattaya itтАЩs 500 for short time and 1000 or more for long-time."

is this accurate?

[Jetsam]

the article says ...

"In Bangkok, the standard rate for short time is 1000 baht, and 1500 or more for long-time. In Pattaya it├втВмтДвs 500 for short time and 1000 or more for long-time."

is this accurate?

I think the minimum for long-time is 1500 baht in Pattaya also

It is still up tp you but discuss it with the boy ahead of time.

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

actually it's a bloddy good article by rice queen diary without any of the moralising sh*t and is probably really the correct answer for Lester's piece on "an alternitve view to Dodger etc etc"

When Mrs O'Booze gives me my weekly allowance to go out and do the "that disgusting thing you do so you won't try it on me" business I always choose the same small hotel that has a combination and key safe.

I always use my age as the combination and never had a problem yet.

Incidently-I do forget sometimes to collect the remains of my meagre allowance so if you ever come across a small hotel not from Sunee with these safes you could try the combination : 220687 and you may find a nice surpise inside.

You were born in 1887?

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

how rude. 1922.

is that 1922 in Gregorian or Buddhist calendar?

My only personal experience of trouble with room safes was at the Ambiance, 4 years ago. Got back to the room, and either I had forgotten the number, or an internal battery had failed, or something - anyway, I couldn't get in to it.

I asked the desk manager for help, and was told that only one of the owners could open it. I had to wait some time because said owners were not around. When one finally turned up, he had to connect an electronic device of some sort to it. He explained to me that this device was kept in a safe to which the staff did not have access, therefore the wait.

When this didn't work, it was explained to me that they would have to make a call to Bangkok the next day to get assistance opening it. In the end, I wiated until mid-day the next day to get back in. Rather inconvenient at the time, but rather reassuring too - it certainly suggests that the bar boys cannot easily get access to these safes at least.


Thanks. This is very reassuring & explains why we haven't had any reports of problems in Pattaya here.

[mahjongguy]

Hotel safes come in many varieties: keypad-only, key-only, keypad + key. By far the most common type is keypad-only. Most of these are cheapish and do not have any feature for electronic intervention (i.e. a discrete socket for an override device). If the code is lost and the batteries are dead, they can only be opened by removing (or pushing aside) the decal or ornament that hides the keyhole and inserting the unique key that came with the safe. If a hotel has 30 of these safes then they will have 30 keys stored in their office safe.

So, the security really depends on who has access to the office safe.

More worrisome to me is the fact that these safes are so small and relatively light. Even if they are fastened in place it only takes a mini-crowbar to pry them out and they can be wrapped in a jacket and walked out the door.

Last month I stayed at a small place on Saladaeng Road. The safe appeared to be dead, so the maid picked it up and brought me a new one. It wasn't even screwed in to the armoire. :(

[Impulse]

My only problem with a safe was the staff member knew how much money I had in the safe.Two thousand dollars is quite a bit for a worker at a bed and breakfast. All he did was hit on me the two weeks i was there,commenting on my guys I offed and gossip with the guys I spent time with.

[quote="rocket"]My only problem with a safe was the staff member knew how much money I had in the safe.Two thousand dollars is quite a bit for a worker at a bed and breakfast. [quote]

Problem is you are dumb enough to carry around $2K in cash. Haven't you ever heard of an ATM, or traveler's checks at least? Only keep in cash as much as you will need for a day or two. There's your first rule of thumb.