Shocking video shows why hotel safes are unsafe

Do you tend to put valuables and important travel documents in hotel safes when you’re staying abroad? You may want to find a new hiding spot. Travellers are often advised to lock their valuables in the safe of their hotel room when they’re out exploring a new city.

When Canadian traveller Brad Reid was staying at a hotel in Ontario, he claims he uncovered something pretty dodgy about the room’s safe. He was staying in a hotel in Markham, Ontario, when he discovered how easy it was to break into the safe at his hotel.

He explained that he put all his travel documents in there and forgot the password he’d initially set, so he called the help desk for assistance.

They informed him that all he had to do was enter another password to open the safe.

The inventive six-digit number they gave him? 000000.

Most safes have an alternate code, but it’s up to the hotel to change this from the default ‘000000’ to something a tad more original. Whether or not they do this, like in Brad’s case, is the concern.

In the video, Reid punched in a simple pin of 123456 to lock the safe.

He then went on to explain how, using the default pin, he could override the lock and open the safe.

When he plugged the hotel’s default pin of 000000, the door to his safe opened on its own.

The video has had more than 1.6million views since it emerged in 2011 but recently went viral again.

Do you put your belongings in the hotel safe?