Thought your valuables were secure in a hotel safe? Shocking video reveals why you should never trust them

Travellers are often advised to lock their valuables in the safe of their hotel room when they're out exploring a new city.

But one Canadian man has revealed why you should never leave anything you might miss in a hotel safe in a tell-tale video.

And the most worrying thing is that he's far from the only person to prove how easy it is for a thief to steal your 'safely stowed' belongings.

A Canadian man has revealed why you should never leave anything valuable inside a hotel safe in a video

 To demonstrate, Brad Reid entered the pin 123456 to lock the device, which was in his hotel room in Ontario, Canada

After locking the safe, he then overrode the code with a default pin of 000000, which opened the safe without any issues

Brad Reid was staying in a hotel in Markham, Ontario, when he discovered how easy it was to break into the safe at his hotel.

Like many other tourists, he locked his valuables into the safe and left the hotel to explore the city.

When he returned to the hotel later that day, he realised that he forgot the pin code he used to lock the safe.

After asking the hotel staff for help, he was surprised to discover that the safe came with a default pin of 000000 to unlock the safe - something that the hotel had left unchanged.

The default code was the one that came with the safe, which the hotel had never changed

The Canadian tourist was shocked about how easy it is to break into the safe and decided to share the video online

In a video posted to YouTube, Reid punched in a simple pin of 123456 to lock the safe.

He then went on to explain how, using the default pin, he could override the lock and open the safe.

When he plugged the hotel's default pin of 000000, the door to his safe opened on its own.

The video has had more than 1.6million views since it emerged in 2011 but recently went viral again.

But while the ease with which he was able to open the safe shocked Reid, the phenomenon is far from uncommon.

In February this year, MailOnline Travel revealed how locksmith Terry Whin-Yates could open any hotel safe in just five seconds with the help of a magnet and a sock.

The magnet damaged the lock while the sock is in fact just used to remove the magnet once the job is done. 

Back in September 2015, MailOnline Travel also showed how security expert Jim Stickley opened a hotel safe in minutes using a screwdriver and an old key ring.

Stickley was able to open the safe thanks to a secondary key hole, hidden behind the brand's label, and unlock the device without a pin.

HOW TO KEEP VALUABLES SAFE IN YOUR HOTEL ROOM

While most safes are secure, there are other tricks available to keep valuables safe in a room

If you feel worried about leaving your hotel room and valuables, deter thieves by placing a Do Not Disturb sign on your door with the TV playing so it seems as if you are in there.

As you leave the room, if you feel the need, vocally announce your departure, as if there were someone remaining behind and the room will not be left unattended.

If the hotel does not have a secure safe, try some of these inventive tricks:

Leave a small amount of money in plain view so they take that and look no further.

Tape an envelope with some money to the underside of empty bins means it will remain undisturbed by cleaning staff.

This can also work under drawers, under desks or in the cover of ironing boards.

If you are really keen to put the effort in to protect your belongings, you can also hide items inside phones or TVs where the backs can be unscrewed, or dropped in a toilet tank in a waterproof covering.