<p>I leave the do not disturb sign on as well as leaving the TV on.</p>
<p>For both the car and the hotel, I don’t like to leave anything unsecured. Back when laptops were $7k, mine was stolen from the trunk of a rental car. Now I use a duffel bag from PacSafe. Pricey bag == cheap insurance!</p>
<p>Schmoo, so sorry about your loss.</p>
<p>Putting the do not disturb sign will help but only if the door is securely pulled closed when you leave the room. Also if you leave the DD sign on everytime you are inot in the room the room will not be cleaned during your stay. If that is your preference you should tell the front desk when you check in that you are declining cleaning and you do not want anyone in the room under any circumstance.</p>
<p>This is my husband’s trick: He leaves the tv on, and the bathroom light on with the bathroom door slightly cracked open. That way if anyone does come in, they may think you’re in the bathroom. He doesn’t leave anything of value in the room anyway. You can spot us on vacation, five of us with husband carrying the big bag wherever we go!</p>
<p>My husband is pretty insistent on using the safe. Though in some places a laptop will not fit.
He also would probably take the loss versus running the risk of the homeowners insurance going up.</p>
<p>We purchased an older refurbished laptop on Ebay that we use for travel. It has minimal software and no photos, no music, no personal info, etc. We still wouldn’t want to have it stolen but if it is, our losses are much smaller.</p>
<p>Although I debated it, for my last trip I didn’t bring a laptop - I just used my iPhone for those times I needed to browse the internet, for the many times I was looking for a hotel or restaurant, and quite a bit for the road maps when we were looking for various places (the GPS Google maps). I used it to check on my work emails in case there were any critical issues. I also used it to take some photos and instantly send them to the grandmas (which they loved). I can even VPN tunnel into my work intranet if needed for an urgent issue. It worked really well for all of this.</p>
<p>One nice thing is it that can be used while driving (by the passenger) or walking or even while at some random location when trying to find where to go to next. The other nice thing is that it fits easily in one’s pocket so it goes with rather than leaving it in a hotel room.</p>
<p>Another point - almost all hotels, including inexpensive ones, have PCs available for people to check on their email if they need to. It’s better than bringing a laptop if one doesn’t really need to.</p>
<p>From my experience, I’ve found that the hotel pc’s are usually dominated by swarms of teenagers and my e-mail (through hotmail) is blocked. YMMV.</p>
<p>And now I’m paranoid about bringing my laptop to a hotel…</p>
<p>What’s the deal with lojack? I thought you call them to activate AFTER the theft.</p>
<p>Sorry this had to happen to you, and where I live no less - I would like the hotel PM’ed to me as well, but your first priority is to try and recover what you can. My D had her laptop stolen by some ruthless USAir employees (an inside job - long story), so I feel your pain…</p>
<p>If you still have the cards, etc., that came with the computer and camera that have any identifying information like model or serial numbers, I would do some quick searches on ebay or craigslist over the next couple of weeks to see if anyone from our area has posted items like what was stolen from you. We busted an in-school crime ring that way…</p>
<p>PS - the response from Rochester’s finest does not surprise me in the least…</p>
<p>
After having just spent 2 weeks in different hotels almost every night we haven’t experienced much of this. All of the PCs supported accessing Hotmail for email. All of the PCs were free to use (I’ve only been hit with usage charges for them in Europe - ridiculous and it didn’t keep kids off). Only once were kids on them but I’m not shy about saying something to them if they’re still there an hour later playing games. I don’t know what the parents are thinking when they send their kids off to the one or two hotel PCs to play for a few hours.</p>
<p>The Rochester Police officer was actually very nice. I don’t want to give the impression they were unsympathetic because they weren’t. They even sent an officer to take pictures of the room. They just offered little hope of catching the thief, but enthusiastically hoped to. The officer who wrote up the report spent quite a bit of time sympathizing, which was nice and not required. If they do catch the thief, he’ll be charged with 3rd degree burglary and grand larceny. It was a very late night, which was hard because we had been up the previous day at 3:15 to drive 8 hours and tour two colleges. DS was up until 3:30 because he did an overnight at one of the schools.</p>
<p>I usually leave the “Do Not Disturb” on too. I must not have–probably because I was expecting (hoping for) a rollaway (which never came–DS slept in the comforter on the floor). There was no safe, but I’ve never had a room with a safe big enough for my 17" laptop anyway. I do use them when they’re available and I must say I’m very relieved that my jewelry, which was packed away in my bag, was untouched. (I’m very thankful of this because I lost a favorite earring just before I left and am still heartsick about that. :()Someone who works at the hotel saw those computer and camera bags when we checked in and watched to see when we left–we were only gone for 2 hours.</p>
<p>Beside not losing any jewelry, the other positive was the way Hotwire handled me when I called to ask to switch hotels for our second night. Despite their no changes policy, they readily agreed to a switch, telling me they couldn’t refund my money but they’d give me Hotwire bucks which would pay for my new hotel room and leave a $92 credit to be used on a future stay. Also, they had to bump me up to a 3 1/2 star hotel (the other was 3 star) to ensure the system didn’t give me the same place, so that was nice.</p>
<p>To the first hotel’s credit, they waived the charges for parking and dinner that I had put on my room. That was a real plus because my dinner was a steak salad so putrid I sent it back (and they didn’t charge me for it–vinegar soaked steak and canned, pickled pimientos, mushrooms and pepperoncinis on iceburg lettuce with an underripe roma tomato in quarters–tomatoes were the best part)! DS liked his pasta okay, but I thought the curdled cheese sauce was reminiscent of vomit. :eek: I’ve sent back wine a couple tiimes but this was only the second time I can remember sending back food.</p>
<p>Today was spent replacing the computer and camera, memory cards, batteries, and bags instead of touring the city. The computer, beside being convenient for keeping up with CC, is a necessity on the trip because DS is working on an online precalc course that’s on hold until next Saturday, but will be back online for the three remaining weeks of vacation (decadent, I know…another reason to feel lucky). Before I checked out of the other hotel this morning I did talk to the manager and tell him I expect to be reimbursed. He was cordial and apologetic and said he’d investigate and get back to me–didn’t seem to have even heard about the incident. I also have a call in to my insurance company to check out coverage–not sure what our deductible is.</p>
<p>NJres – I’m so glad to know I’m not the only one who thought Lojack could be activated after the computer was stolen. I had no idea I had to activate it before it could be used.</p>
<p>Wow, this sounds like a HORRIBLE hotel! You really should write reviews about it on the online sites to help people avoid it. I’m so sorry. I’m staying in a hotel for the next 12 days and your experience has me worried. I can’t avoid housekeeping for 12 days! :)</p>
<p>I’ll be taking my laptop and iPhone with me each day (conference), so truly there won’t be much to steal, but still. </p>
<p>I’m so sorry about the theft of your pictures and the inconvenience to your son for his class. I hope the college visits are proving to be a lot better and informative for your S’s decision-making.</p>
<p>I am glad you did get some help from the officer - I rode with an RPD officer for a shift once and I am amazed how their calls get re-prioritized on the fly, such that requests like yours usually don’t get responded to for a long period of time, although they have every intention to.</p>
<p>Still keeping my fingers crossed that you get a happy resolution!!</p>
<p>I have not read all of the replies so please excuse any repetition. I had a business cause me 2000 dollars in replacement cost and I hollered for them to reimburse me only to be told no. Then a notable person in the community was robbed at the establishment and the newspaper article mentioned that the business reimbursed them for the money lost.</p>
<p>I went back to the place and raised a stink and got them to reimburse my 2000 which they did.</p>
<p>Your door malfunctioning should be enough to make them pay you. You expect when you sign the contract to stay in the room for the things to work properly. The fact that the camera was hidden and was still taken but the jewelry was not, tells me they knew what to look for when they entered the room.</p>
<p>The front desk people could watch you come and go while dining on your terrible dinner and could easily be the culprits. </p>
<p>I would take this one up with corporate hotel management which is easy to figure out from the website and holler until you get reimbursed.</p>
<p>I had an expensive camera stollen out of the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans. I didnt get anywhere with the management the day of my stay. BUT… I read (on the plane home) that managers of that chain have the discretion to spend $2000 per customer to make them “happy”. I called that day from Los Angeles and one week later received a check for $1844.</p>
<p>I’d like to know the name of the hotel. My daughter is starting at RIT this fall and we will be needing the occasional hotel room. We try to be careful about leaving things in our room, but sometimes get careless when going out for a meal. </p>
<p>I tried to PM you but your message box is full, but you should be able to PM me instead. Thanks.</p>
<p>Betterbidding lists the following as 3* hotels in Rochester:
Clarion Riverside
Staybridge Suites East
Radisson
Country Inn and Suites</p>
<p>I don’t know why I should protect the identity of the hotel where I had such a miserable experience. All the people I dealt with were pleasant enough so I don’t want to hurt their livlihoods, but the hotel needs a lot of maintenance, not the least of which is work on the door locks. Someone who overheard me talk about my experience in the elevator mentioned that he had gone back to his room to get something he forgot and found the door unlatched and perfectly accessible without a key. The Plaza Hotel and Conference Center.</p>
<p>Time for oldfort to send this thread to the correct person at the corporate offices of The Plaza Hotel! (Worked great with the AAA thread…)</p>