A friend of a friend ,(his 1st trip to Thailand) the other day stayed at the Expat Hotel in Patong Beach. the 1st night he arrived , he said the safety deposit box in his room was not working , so he left all his money $2000.00 (aussie dollars) in bottom of his bag/suitcase.
The next morning he was awoken by the room maid to clean his room, so he got up opened his bag & got out his swimmers & went for a swim , on return he showered & went to get clean clothes on & his money , but his money was gone,
he fronted the reception & owner & said the money was stolen by the cleaner , but they did not accept any responsibilty, after a few arguments over it , he left & moved to another hotel , he asked for a refund on the nights he had paid but was not given one,
he is still in high spirits despite losing such a large amount, & loving Thailand,
maybe he should of asked to have safety box fixed or put in main safe ,& not leave it in his bag unsecured, but unfortunetly not everybody is honest in this world, it can happen any where i guess doesn't matter what country it is. a very valuable lesson learnt.

Did he contact the tourist police? I guess not by your post but in cases like this you really should contact them.
I know the Expat Hotel, right in the heart of Patong, just off Soi Bangla. I think they have a lot of drunken Aussies & dodgy Thai birds stay there, so I suppose robbings are fairly frequent. Anyway, I feel sorry for your friend. Very bad luck for him.

If the safe wasnt working then he should have put it in the main safe at the front desk!

I dont trust them pin key safes in the room,the maintenance staff have the overide code to open them so who else has it?

I keep my money with my passport an if the hotel isnt a big one then i check it in with the front desk.

den

Who did he wake up with perhaps?

Den

We foolishly took a chance and left our passports, tickets and money in our room one night when we changed rooms at the Griya Santrian in Sanur. The previous guest had shut the room safe door and the night staff were unable to unlock it ... it took 3 phones calls and no go.... eventually the next day a manager walked past and I grabbed him (poor bugger) and within minutes someone with an electronic thing arrived and unlocked the safe and so we were able to re-set it.
I guess we were were lucky that the staff at the Griya Santrian were honest.
Cheers Geri