Keeping Your Belongings Safe While Travelling

TTT 12
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Meggan: hey, everyone. Welcome back to travel tip Tuesday. It is our biweekly drop-in where we impart nuggets of wisdom to like help you better plan or experience your travel or that's what we like to think we do. So we're doing what we're doing, but that's what we're going to tell ourselves. Um, And this.

We're so important. This week I want to talk about your accommodations while traveling and thinking about keeping yourself and your belongings safe. When we travel though, it's usually not about like where you're sleeping. I mean, if you're staying in. Like a castle or something. That's super cool. Of course it is.

But generally you're there to see, like what's outside your hotel or your BNB or whatever, but to enjoy that you kind of need that peace of mind about what's happening in your room and like, hopefully nothing's happening. But you want to be safe. So a few quick tips I wanted to review, you know, they might seem basic or like duh Meggan but we, you know, we're all a bit outta practice.

So I thought we would just sort of go over, obviously do not leave anything of value in plain sight. Um, Use the safe in your room if there is one available. I mean, I think that's so key, especially when you are traveling with a passport, you can replace almost anything else. But a passport is a big deal. I would even suggest if you have like special jewelry and stuff, leave it home.

Like don't even rely on the safe. You don't need that stuck with you. I even replaced my wedding ring with. Plastic rings when we travel. Like, I just don't even take those with me. It's not worth it. Do not treat your room like a hurricane has just blown through, like, I've seen videos of people, hotel rooms, and it's like, they had been there for three months and not one thing.

Um, But it also doesn't allow for you to keep track of like, what should be there? Like, what are your things? And like, do you have everything? And it also does make it hard for the staff to clean your room. Like just don't be pigs. Always check around the mattress seems. For unwanted critters. I think that that's really important.

You don't want to take those home with you and we don't want that happening in your room at home. Another thing too, like I've traveled with people who just completely unpack their suitcases in hotel rooms. Like they move in, they put their stuff in the drawers, they hang their stuff in the closet and like kudos to them.

But ensure that. You know, it makes sure there's nothing you can't live without in that stuff that you unpack. Just know that it's not your room. You don't live there. So if you are taking that chance, just make sure you can live without it. And like, I would say the last tip, honestly, and this is just in life in general, like be respectful.

So when you leave your room at the end of your stay, Possibly leave a tip if that's in your realm of possibility for you. But at least just don't leave a huge mass for the cleaning staff. I just, I used to work at a hotel and there are a million horror stories. So not only are you wanting them to keep your things stay safe, you should be treating the place you're staying the same.

Yeah, I dunno. Yeah, just a thought. Jenn have you had any issues with anything ever going missing or mishaps in accommodations?

Jenn: No, not for me. I also used to work in an Inn here in Liverpool at Lane's privateer Inn and I worked in housekeeping for a while. And so I saw, I saw the hurricane sometimes and. It was horrible. Please don't do that. I also am the person that unpacked in the hotel room. But I find like, so I packed my things now in the. Packing cubes. And so I literally just unzipper the packing cube and put that whole, whole thing in drawer because especially if you're sitting in a room that's not very big and you have like luggage and like, it can get really cluttered in there.

So I find that a little bit easier. And then as I go either throw the word. Clothes in the suitcase or I've brought like a pop-up hamper in the past before, too that like folds down. So yes, it's, I don't know that, you know, that's usually if I'm staying somewhere for like a week, not necessarily like a couple of days or whatever, but I mean, my last big trips have been Disney and so we've just kind of unpacked and then

Meggan: done it before it, one of the people I traveled with, she did it and she's like, why don't you just try it? And I'm like, okay. And don't get me wrong. Like taking it to the drawers, wearing it, putting it in the suitcase. It makes a lot of sense. It's just not something I think to do. It's not part of my routine.

It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but again, you just have to be safe to make sure and understand that your stuff is just out there.

Jenn: I mean, and I'm like, As far as like forgetting something I'm a big, like check and check and check and check,

Meggan: run around those rooms like my head's cut off

Jenn: like I know I just opened this door, but I'm going to open it again as did I lose bathroom than ever everything we had, but I'm going to look again.

Meggan: Yeah, I actually had a watch stolen. It's my fault. Like at the end of the day, it's no one to blame, but me. But in 2008, we stayed in kind of a seedy London hotel. And I had a Donna Karan watch that I bought on my liberation trip back in 2004. When I spent like a month in France actually had like a little bit of.

Not worth but worth to me. And it was a hard lesson. So it sucked, but it, well, it shouldn't have been stolen. I definitely blame myself for leaving it out. It's it was a huge rookie move. Like I traveled for years, so I don't even know why I did it. But I came back and it was gone and I'm like, well, there's your life lesson for the day, I guess.

It sucked, but it happens. So that's sort of why, when I was thinking of like a tip for the week, I'm like, now that we're all getting back out there, it might be something just to, you know, w we all get lackadaisical. Sometimes we're like, oh, nothing will happen. Well, you don't

Jenn: know a hundred percent when we were in Paris. I mean, Really paranoid about pickpockets because everybody warns you. Right. And we were lucky, like we were totally fine, but we were in we're in the airport going home. And we were in the elevator with this lady and she had her phone in her front pocket and it was gone after being in the elevator, in the airport.

Meggan: Oh, my goodness.

Jenn: Yeah. So life happens fast. I mean, this is not a hotel room story. It's like being careful and being aware. It can happen so fast. And like in places that you're not expecting it, like the airport.

Meggan: Well, exactly. And you want to believe that people are good and most people are, but everyone isn't.

So I think, you know, whether it's your hotel room or like you just sit at the airport, just keep your stuff close and keep your valuables hidden. Or at home a hundred percent. So hopefully this helped and it's just more than anything serves as a reminder. Um, So that is, this makes trial to Tuesday happy planning and traveling.

I know we've made a big impact here today. So if you enjoyed today's tip and if you want, you could definitely re leave us a review on apple or Spotify. Maybe buy us a coffee. Our mugs are like super dry, so like, we'd love a drink of coffee. And just share the episode with a travel loving pal.

Maybe they need a refresher in hotel safety. All right, everybody.