A British expat living in Benidorm has issued a stark warning to holidaymakers about the safety of their personal belongings.
Frank the Stag Man is a licensed travel agent specialising in stag and hen parties in the area who regularly shares advice for Brits visiting the Spanish resort. In a new TikTok video he highlighted a sign on the beach offering advice to Brits on holiday, one point being the use of hotel safes for storing possessions.
However, Frank isn’t convinced and warned that even these are not completely secure. “Even the safes in hotels are not absolutely secure because a lot of people over the years have told me they’ve had money taken out of them,” he revealed.
“So be careful – what I always recommend people do is count the money you put in the safe, write on a bit of paper how much money you’ve put in there and leave it at the front of the safe inside.”
Frank further advised: “That way you know if there’s any missing out of it when you check it – you won’t have to go back the next morning and say, ‘oh s***, I didn’t think I’d spent that much yesterday’. That’s what happens, and they get away with it leaving you thinking you had in fact spent the money.”
He went on to claim why thieves often don’t take the “whole amount”, meanwhile. “If they did that you’d go straight down [to the lobby] and start going mad,” he said. “So they’ll take it bit by bit.”
“If you leave a thousand in there, they’ll probably take a hundred,” Frank went on to allege. He then speculated that if thieves targeted every room in a 300-room hotel, the profits would be substantial. “Then the next day as you’re thinking, ‘s*** I didn’t think I’d spent that much – they take another hundred.”
Frank also suggested that most guests don’t report such incidents because nobody sees it as an issue. He advised: “Be very careful with your safe. Make sure if there’s anything wrong with your safe you go to the reception and make some noise. You want to report it, and if need be, report it to the police.”
In response to Frank’s video, a fellow TikTok user chimed in with their own tip: “I’m not sure if it’s the same in Benidorm, but in Gran Canaria I use my bank card for everything – 100%. Even on the buses, cups of coffee, beers, supermarket. Careful I don’t lose the card though.”
Alicante Today reported that over 600,000 Brits visited Benidorm from January to August, 2024, with UK tourists making up 45% of all overnight stays in the popular Costa Blanca destination during that time.
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