Travelers are typically advised to put their valuables in their hotel room’s safe in order to keep them, well, safe. But your jewelry, passport, and technology might not be as secure as you thought, warned one content creator.
“Never trust a hotel safe. Be careful travelers,” Umair Imtiaz (@umairimtiaz.official) captioned a recent video he uploaded to TikTok. “Summer is around the corner. Holiday season is going to start soon.”
Earlier this month, Imtiaz posted a video where he demonstrated a safe being opened by hitting 000000 on its keypad. As of Saturday evening, his TikTok had amassed more than 3 million views.
“Never trust a hotel safe,” Imtiaz said. To demonstrate the insecurity of most hotel safes, he locked a clothing iron and several one-hundred dollar bills into one. “You think that by locking it in safe[ly] and making up your own combination that it’ll be safe.”
Indeed, Imtiaz created his own passcode and locked the items inside. He jiggled on the door of the safe, which said it was closed. But Imtiaz said his belongings inside are actually quite easy to access.
“If anybody comes in and hits the lock button twice, you see the word ‘super,’” he said, following his own instructions as he spoke. “Now all you have to do is hit zero six times and it opens up.”
“That doesn’t seem very safe,” Imtiaz said, ending his video as the safe opened.
To be sure, Imtiaz is not the first content creator to warn viewers about the downfalls of hotel safes. In 2023, another content creator uploaded a similar TikTok. Another YouTube video on the subject, by LockPickingLawyer, has amassed more than 1.6 million views.
@umairimtiaz.official Never Trust Hotel Safe becareful travelers summer is the around corner holiday season is going to start soon becareful everyone. #viral #foryou #fyp #helpful #hacks #dadtok #trending #CapCut #hotelsafe #hotelroom #hotelsafetytips #momtiktok ♬ original sound – Umair Imtiaz
Why are hotel safes easy to access?
There’s a fairly simple explanation for why safes aren’t as secure as we might expect. According to the Independent, some hotels don’t change the default unlock code, which serves to help guests who’ve accidentally forgotten their own passcode. The default code for most hotel safes, it warned, is 000000—not exactly a thief-proof code.
If you’re concerned about your valuables getting stolen, some experts recommend asking your hotel’s front desk if you can store your belongings in a safety deposit box. And if you have to use your hotel’s safe, it probably wouldn’t hurt to double-check that you can’t unlock it with an all-zero combination or some variation of a 1-2-3-4 code.
Still, despite these workarounds, many viewers pledged to never put their belongings in a hotel safe again.
“I never leave anything of value in a hotel room,” one user said.
“I never use the hotels safe,” another said.
Others, however, chided Imtiaz for sharing this hack online. Some joked that he was inadvertently telling people how to steal.
“About to become a robber so bad,” one viewer quipped.
“if anyone that didn’t know how to do it… you do now,” another added.
One commented, “It’s was safe until you showed the world.”
“Thanks for the tutorial,” another said.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Imtiaz via TikTok comment.
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