Why are Lockers inside the Dorm Room?

[hobohideout]

I am 100 percent in favor or lockers in Hostels and even in Hotels, the locker being big enough to put my two carryon travel bags inside. I want a hasp that allows me to use my own padlock, and consider it unsafe when the Hostel has a way to enter my locker. I do not trust cleaning people, some minimum paid person who has access to all my possessions.

I truly wish they would put electrical plugs inside the locker for mobile phones, computers and other electronics to keep them safe also.

However, I am 100 percent sure a locker inside the dorm is the worst location for them. They should be located outside in the hall whereby a person can wake up for their five oclock flight and not disturb all those who stayed up all night drinking.

I will say thank you to the Hostel that do have lockers, as best I can estimate, only about fifty percent even have locker and care about the guest safety. I lock my bag up to the bed with dog chain.

Andy of HoboTraveler.com in Bangkok, Thailand today.

[santa klaus]

Originally Posted by hobohideout

I am 100 percent in favor or lockers in Hostels and even in Hotels, the locker being big enough to put my two carryon travel bags inside. I want a hasp that allows me to use my own padlock, and consider it unsafe when the Hostel has a way to enter my locker. I do not trust cleaning people, some minimum paid person who has access to all my possessions.

I am not in favor of padlock solutions - because not every traveller has a padlock. Our lockers work with electronic smartcards. Our cleaning staff can only open the room doors, but not the lockers.

Originally Posted by hobohideout

I truly wish they would put electrical plugs inside the locker for mobile phones, computers and other electronics to keep them safe also.

Fire hazard! What if a charger overheats and catches fire inside a locker?

Originally Posted by hobohideout

However, I am 100 percent sure a locker inside the dorm is the worst location for them. They should be located outside in the hall whereby a person can wake up for their five oclock flight and not disturb all those who stayed up all night drinking.

I think most people would consider that to be unsafe. When the locker is in your room, you will wake up if someone tries to break into it. You won´t notice if that happens outside your room.

Originally Posted by hobohideout

I will say thank you to the Hostel that do have lockers, as best I can estimate, only about fifty percent even have locker and care about the guest safety. I lock my bag up to the bed with dog chain.

I always did that, too. Best of all, you can lock up your bag inside the luggage compartments of buses. When I travelled in South America, a backpack vanished from a bus - not mine. If luggage is transported on a roof-mounted rack (very common in countries with bad roads and old buses) you can lock it to the rack so it won´t fall off.

[Hostels]

I like those lockers with key cards, but I think I would only want to leave my laptop in a key card locker at a well-run hostel. There are some flophouses out there where the staff steal from guests, and even management can't be trusted.

[hobohideout]

This is a good point on the over-heating of the cell phones.

The better solution on the locking, may be to have both a card and a hasp system, so that we do not have to trust Hostels, however those people who do not have a lock can trust the management. I feel you manage a Hostel well, however I often find the Hostel is managed by people that feel they can trust anyone in the Hostel. You can see this system often by the way they hang up keys in the box compartment in many Hostels or Hotel, and any person could walk behind the desk and steal a key.

If you realize that you bag could have been stolen while in the compartment of a bus, then you realize also that a traveler should have a lock.

In the spirit of the Youth Hostel concept, I do believe that Hostel are best to encourage inexperienced travelers to learn security. I have been in two Hostel that were robbed while I was in them, one in Brugge, Belgium and the other in Warsaw, Poland, I just heard the other day that the one in Manila got robbed. Normally someone goes into a locked room while nobody is there and strips the bags or lockers. I have never been robbed, however I have always locked my bag up to the bed.

[santa klaus]

Originally Posted by hobohideout

This is a good point on the over-heating of the cell phones.

A yearly thumbs-up from the fire department is part of our license to run our hostels. They would never-ever allow power sockets in the lockers. Imagine a charger buried under a pile of laundry so the heat can´t escape. The clothes will eventually start to char. If this happens at night, you´ll have a few cases of smoke poisoning in that room, possibly even dead guests.

Originally Posted by hobohideout

The better solution on the locking, may be to have both a card and a hasp system, so that we do not have to trust Hostels, however those people who do not have a lock can trust the management.

I sort of insist you trust me if you stay here!

Originally Posted by hobohideout

If you realize that you bag could have been stolen while in the compartment of a bus, then you realize also that a traveler should have a lock.

Well. Those were buses which stopped in every small town along the route. People got in and out, luggage was loaded and unloaded. There is alwas a big crowd at the bus terminals, so you don´t even see someone running away with a backpack so easily. That always made me nervous, so I usually tried to have a seat on the same side where my backpack was stored beneath, so I could observe what´s unloaded. Sometimes I insisted to lock it to a pole down there. If there was a roof rack, I always locked it to it.
I usually had less concerns in the hostels though. Travellers hardly steal stuff from other travellers.

[gordo]

padlock lockers are better than no lockers, but yeah, smart card is the way to go. ive used a few where you use your room card to 'open' the locker then set your own code for it. thought that was pretty neat.

as far as powerpoints in the lockers go; id love to be able to install them if i could figure a way around the obvious fire hazard. being able to charge your laptop/ipod/phone inside a locker would be great.

all that said, i never keep my bags in the locker - only valuables. im always surprised at people who want to stuff their entire suitcase into a locker; are they really worried about people stealing their dirty jocks?

[santa klaus]

Originally Posted by gordo

padlock lockers are better than no lockers, but yeah, smart card is the way to go. ive used a few where you use your room card to 'open' the locker then set your own code for it. thought that was pretty neat.

Not better that a normal smartcard locker because I´m sure there is still master-smartcard.What if a guest forgets the code? There must be a way to open the thing.

The smartcards hava an additional advantage: if someone checks in for one night the card is programmed to work until noon (or whatever time you set) on the next day. If the guest forgets to tell the front desk he wants to stay another night he won´t be able to open the locker (or room door), so he has to come down to the reception.
In the hostels where we still work with keys there are always one or two every day who don´t check out, so we have to go upstairs to look for them.

[gordo]

Not better that a normal smartcard locker because I´m sure there is still master-smartcard.What if a guest forgets the code? There must be a way to open the thing.

there is. its bit like if a swipecard door lock goes nuts - you can reset them if you know how (and have the little machine) its all still electronic.

The smartcards hava an additional advantage: if someone checks in for one night the card is programmed to work until noon (or whatever time you set) on the next day. If the guest forgets to tell the front desk he wants to stay another night he won´t be able to open the locker (or room door), so he has to come down to the reception.
In the hostels where we still work with keys there are always one or two every day who don´t check out, so we have to go upstairs to look for them.

mate, you dont need to extol the virtues of keycard systems to me, i HATE keys. got a guy coming on friday to give us a quote to install them here. not gonna go with the locker system just yet; first things first.