Safety Deposit Box Procedure
for B&Bs and Hotels

By Nathan Gawlik
Nathan Gawlik's experience includes being a General Manager of a Hampton Inn and other front line roles such as a Banquet Captain, Front Desk Agent, Housekeeper, Catering Event Manager, and Director of Sales.

Safety Deposit Box Procedure
for B&Bs and Hotels

By Nathan Gawlik

Many inns offer a place for guests to lock up their belongings. This is a convenience for guests that gives them peace of mind, with one caveat.

Of course, nothing is 100% safe. All hotel in-room safes have a backdoor or master code that can be used to open it if the guest forgets their unique personal one. This is typically the manufacture master code since few properties go through the hassle of changing the code. A quick internet search of the unit can reveal this code. That being said, an in-room guest safe is convenient for guest use and does create an extra barrier against theft.

A unit such as the one depicted below will cost about $250.00 each. There might be an opportunity to get a discount if you buy in bulk or directly from the manufacturer but the costs can add up quickly. Likewise, who is to say just how much they get used, and is it a true value add for your guests.

Alternatives

The alternative is to have a safety deposit box available for guest use at the front desk. These are similar to what you might find in the vault at a bank. A unit similar to the one depicted below will cost about $500.00 for 5 boxes.

These types of units come with two types of keys. A master key, held by a staff member, and the unique box key handed out to the guest. Both keys are needed to open the box. It's important to note to the guest that if the safe key you provide them is lost, it can't be replaced and access to the safe will be nearly impossible.

These units also come with bond boxes for each safe. This way guests can be discreet. Some guests may opt to sign out the bond box and take it up to their room, place their valuables in it, and then return it to the office in exchange for the key.

Another added benefit to having the safety deposit boxes in a central location is that many properties typically have security cameras. If there were to be an incident, it will be caught on camera.

A good rule of thumb is to have 1 box for every 10-20 guest rooms. These do not get used very frequently but I would have a minimum of 2-3. This is particularly true if you want to use one of the boxes for personal use.

If you are going to be handling guest's valuables, a certain duty of care is expected. Develop a clearly defined process with a log and directions for your staff. I've provided an example of staff direction below:

Have the guest fill out the front side of the Safe Deposit Box Record sheet
Record the Box number on the top of the sheet
Then give the guest a larger key for the safety deposit box. (white key)
Each time the guest accesses the safety deposit box, you should have the date, time, and initials of the guest on the back sheet.
When the key is returned be sure the time and your initials are marked in the correct location.

You may also choose to state that only the manager or owner can accept items to be placed in the safety deposit box so you ensure the situation is handled correctly. Select Registry provides an option for prospective guests to buy gift certificates to stay at one of their nearly 300 properties across the United States.

New Staff

While working at the resort we hosted a very large event for a social work conference. During the event, the coordinator had a raffle with prizes. Attendees purchased raffle tickets that raised nearly thirty thousand dollars for the organization. The event contact, needed a place to keep this cash safe during the event until it could be deposited. She unknowingly handed this large sum of money over to our newest Front Desk Agent.

This young woman didn't know what to do with it exactly so she dropped it in our back office safe - not for guest use. The only people that had access to this safe were in accounting. This caused delays for the event contact when she wanted to retrieve it later that day. We had to call accounting to come to retrieve it from the safe.

Thank goodness for her, the new staff member put it in the safe and didn't leave it on my desk or take off with it.

I hope you are starting to see the value of having a survival guide, referenced in another article. Situations such as this likely won't come up during the first week of training or could slip your mind during the training process but if mishandled have the potential to be a very expensive mistake.

Conclusion

Whichever safe option you decide to offer, be sure to advertise it clearly to your guests. A simple note in the guest rooms will suffice. Many properties tend to avoid the question of safes all together to avoid the liability. The easiest and cheapest solution is to advise guests to keep valuables on their person or to lock them in their vehicles.

Resources

As a generous sponsor of this publication ResNexus has offered to provide additional resources to readers like you. Specific to this chapter on Safety Deposit Boxes we have a safety deposit log and a corresponding safety deposit training sheet available for free.