Leave gear in hotel room or bring to the beach?

jonneymendoza

Hi. i am planning to go to miami beach in september and will stay in a hotel there for a couple of nights as well.

i will be bringing all my gear as i will be going to other places besides the beaches.

my question is should i leave my gear in the hotel whenever i go to the beach for a swim with my wife(just two of us going so no one to look after my gear in the beach) or take it with me, hide the bag amongst towels or something and keep a eye on it once in a while while in the water having fun?

Thoughts?

btw it is all insured but the catch with the "theft" part is that it is not covered if its unattended and got stolen(i checked many insureres and most ar elike that) im with photoguard by the way

http://www.photoguard.co.uk/coversummary.asp

What is not covered
We are committed to providing you with clarity on the cover you are looking to purchase and aim to tell you the key exclusions of this policy before you buy.

Exclusions relating to theft of your equipment

Theft if the equipment is entrusted to someone else
Theft of your photographic equipment if left unattended when away from its usual insured location unless it is in a locked room, locked cupboard or locked luggage compartment of a vehicle
Theft at the insured location unless there is forcible and or violent entry
Theft when the security requirementshave not been met
The matching of a collection

gear: 400d gripped, 70-200f2.8 mk2, 17-50mm tamron f2.8, nifty fifty, 430ex2 flash

magicbastarder

jonneymendoza wrote: »

btw it is all insured but the catch with the "theft" part is that it is not covered if its unattended and got stolen(i checked many insureres and most ar elike that)

this is standard practice. they won't cover you if you are not taking due care of your gear.

jonneymendoza

so it begs teh question. what do i do then lol.

ScumLord

Never bring a camera to a beach unless you absolutely have too. Beach sand destroys cameras.

jonneymendoza

ScumLord wrote: »

Never bring a camera to a beach unless you absolutely have too. Beach sand destroys cameras.

i have brought ti with me a few times before hehe but yea the dicussion i am having here is where shall i leave it because obviously i cant go swimining the sea with my camera wrapped around my neck lol.

gerk86

room safe maybe? Personally, I only ever lug my gear around for a job. Way too much hassle otherwise.

Gregor Samsa

Does the hotel room have a safe? Some of your gear might fit in if it does (I doubt all of it will, those safes are usually small).

To be honest, I think bringing to the beach is as big a risk. Sand and salt water aren't good for cameras and lenses, and sand has a habit of getting bloody everywhere. You'd want them in a zip-lock plastic bag inside whatever bag you carry them in.

Add to that the fact that you'll want to go swimming/take a nap/build sandcastles, so your gear is likely to be somewhat unattended anyway (unless you have someone look after while you swim).

I've brought cameras to the beach loads of times, and I've left cameras in my hotel room loads of times. Mostly without incident. Except...

I did once have 4 grands worth of gear (camera, lenses, laptop, iPods, etc) stolen from a locked holiday apartment in Berlin. There were clear signs forced entry (crowbar indentations on the door frame), and my regular home insurance covered the whole lot, with no excess and no hassle (FBD).

The main thing is to enjoy your holiday, and not be worrying too much about your gear - but strike a balance with sensible precautions.

By the way, the insurance terms you quoted expressly state that your gear would be insured in a locked room - so you'll be covered if you leave the gear in the hotel (and lock the door). Ring the insurers if you're not sure about this.

So I'd go with "leave in hotel".

jonneymendoza

phutyle wrote: »

Does the hotel room have a safe? Some of your gear might fit in if it does (I doubt all of it will, those safes are usually small).

To be honest, I think bringing to the beach is as big a risk. Sand and salt water aren't good for cameras and lenses, and sand has a habit of getting bloody everywhere. You'd want them in a zip-lock plastic bag inside whatever bag you carry them in.

Add to that the fact that you'll want to go swimming/take a nap/build sandcastles, so your gear is likely to be somewhat unattended anyway (unless you have someone look after while you swim).

I've brought cameras to the beach loads of times, and I've left cameras in my hotel room loads of times. Mostly without incident. Except...

I did once have 4 grands worth of gear (camera, lenses, laptop, iPods, etc) stolen from a locked holiday apartment in Berlin. There were clear signs forced entry (crowbar indentations on the door frame), and my regular home insurance covered the whole lot, with no excess and no hassle (FBD).

The main thing is to enjoy your holiday, and not be worrying too much about your gear - but strike a balance with sensible precautions.

By the way, the insurance terms you quoted expressly state that your gear would be insured in a locked room - so you'll be covered if you leave the gear in the hotel (and lock the door). Ring the insurers if you're not sure about this.

So I'd go with "leave in hotel".

Cleaners can unlock the door and clean the rooms though?

frozenfrozen

jonneymendoza wrote: »

Cleaners can unlock the door and clean the rooms though?

do not disturb sign on the door

Gregor Samsa

jonneymendoza wrote: »

Cleaners can unlock the door and clean the rooms though?

Well, ring the insurers and check that out.

The good thing is that hotel doors usually auto-lock when closed, so you wouldn't have to prove that the door was locked when you left the room. And they usually have key-card entry, which are more difficult to copy than regular keys, and provide the hotel with a time stamp of all uses. So if stuff was stolen from such a room, there be some chance of either tracking the culprit, or at least showing that they didn't gain access due to your negligence.

The apartment in Berlin I mentioned, you had to turn a physical key to lock the door. That's why the forced entry marks were significant: chances are they wouldn't have forced the door if it wasn't locked (and I had no way of proving I locked the door). And I would have only been insured if the stuff was in a locked room. But cleaners would have had a key to that room too - as could any previous occupant who could have got one cut - and FBD never brought the matter up at all. We had a Police report that mentioned the marks on the door frame.

pete4130

Just have it insured or put it in the safe. It's pretty simple really.

Do yo really want to leave several €1000's worth of gear wrapped in a towel on the beach?...No....so why do it.

If you don't want your stuff stolen, don't put it in a position to be stolen. It's pretty freakking simple. Otherwise insure or ensure it doesn't get stolen.

Boards.ie won't guarantee it doesn't get stolen so take some action that common sense dictates.

gsxr1

You could just buy a compact. and leave the big guns in the hotel.

jcf

Hotel in Miami should have a safe in the room, any hotels if stayed in the US have quite large safes in the room and i could fit my camera + 3,4 lenses in there.

jonneymendoza

gsxr1 wrote: »

You could just buy a compact. and leave the big guns in the hotel.

thats the plan. i have a compact camera already plus my htc one x which is decent in bright daylight

b318isp

When I travel, I often leave the grip behind and bring a general purpose lens so what I have looks smaller and less tasty to thieves. In your case, bring the Tamron. Leave the 70-200 at home!

Borderfox

A lot of the safes have a default number for the hotel staff to open when you leave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW7M84khZy8

jonneymendoza

Borderfox wrote: »

A lot of the safes have a default number for the hotel staff to open when you leave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW7M84khZy8

interesting.

Balfey1972

jonneymendoza

Sent you a PM. Our policy provides full theft cover on contents away from the property. You would be covered if left in a locked hotel room. There is no visible or forceable entry clause on this.

There is at you home residence along with the standard minimum security requirements if you were broken into (Just like your house insurance).

You will not have any cover if you left it on the beach. So like other posters I agree leave it in the hotel room.

also some house policies do provide cover for this but the majority like your existing (camera) policy exclude it.

Always worth checking out and getting written confirmation.

Derek.
camerainsurance.ie