In general, carrying things around with you are more likely to get lost or stolen in some manner than if they're just left in your room. There are probably exceptions but if I'm somewhere like Western Europe, I'm not carrying my passport around with me.

I’m usually in developed countries with pickpocketing as a problem, so I’m confident in showing my drivers license if I get controlled by police, but if I lose my passport, I’m in trouble.

But what if you have 2 passports? Carrying both is a SPoF. Where do you hide the additional?

> Where do you hide the additional?

Definitely not in the room safe, that's the first thing they'll look through.

Maybe the hotel has their own safe? But that involves trusting the staff.

I think all bets are off if someone with intent breaks into your room and does a full upheaval, but hiding it in your suitcase or e.g. sticking it with some tape under a cabinet or drawer might be adequate.

The other thing with putting things in a hotel safe is forgetting them when you leave. I basically hardly ever put clothes in a closet or a drawer in a hotel because over the course of hundreds of stays, I will forget at some point.

Reminds me of my college days, we’d play “trophy bowl” where teams of 2 against 2 would have to find a hidden object and then place it in a room cup in the centre of the room (or a bowl of a trophy if one was available).

Our preferred strategy was to have my teammate pin down the other two so I could search the room uninhibited.

Made for great entertainment for anyone watching.

They won't take a passport from the safe though. It doesn't have any value and if they're caught it's clear it's been stolen.

Such thieves want only money and perhaps devices. Anything else they don't care about.

For me that's a perfect recipe to forget about it... sooner or later, most likely under some travel related stress or in rush... unless I would stick on the bathroom mirror post-it with "remember the passport!" written on it?

There's a greater chance in most places to have your passport lost or stolen from you than losing it from somebody breaking into your hotel room I think (zero data to back this). It's also a hassle; you want to go to the beach and swim or snorkel or any sport, now what do you do, having to keep an eye on a pouch or something.

>There's a greater chance in most places to have your passport lost or stolen from you than losing it

If you keep it under your clothes in a travel wallet, this won't happen.

>you want to go to the beach and swim or snorkel or any sport

You can get waterproof pouches for this.

Uhm, good luck renting motorbike in Southeast Asia without your passport as deposit and local police is well aware of this.