There are a lot of elements that can make or break a long-awaited vacation. For most of us, making sure you have enough money to travel is a top priority. Then come the fun bits like planning your out-of-office days and coordinating with travel buddies or local friends.

However, when you gleefully submit to the whirlwind of escapism and wanderlust, it’s important to stay prudent. We’re not trying to sound like your parents, but it is *undeniably* in your best interest to take some time to think about your safety and the security of your belongings.

Sure, you can still have a Eurotrip without a wad of euros. That vacation might become a nightmare if you are careless with your valuables though. And while you expect your lodging to have your back — and they will, to some extent — you need to think twice before you abandon your valuables in a hotel safe. (laptop, your passport, your colorful stack of international cash, and god forbid anything that has sentimental value) As most hotel safes can most likely be unlocked with a slightly stronger than average magnet.

Something Has To Change

Here at SILO, learning about the darker moments of whimsical vacations is our business. Over the years, we’ve heard plenty of painful stories about travel-gone-wrong by victims of theft.

There’s the classic; “I left my wallet on the bar for ONE SECOND and it was taken” (Interviewee who was returning from a bachelor party. Had to wait in an airport detainment room while the TSA called his parents.)

Then there’s the not-so-classic “My passport and wallet were stolen out of my hotel safe and the hotel couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do anything about it.”

Some people steal hearts. And some people steal money. Whether they’re desperate, thrill-seeking, spiteful, or bored, thieving strangers and hotel staff are not going to stop to consider the inconvenience they’re causing you to get a little financial boost that unfortunately consists of your travel budget.

The goal of (good) technology is to solve real problems for real people. (or to make ungodly profits by harvesting and selling your data, but that’s for another article)

In the mobile era, keeping users in the know is often means of empowerment. We get friendly pings when someone adds us on LinkedIn. We can check in on our homes when our dogs activate motion sensors while we’re out and about.

Yet, when we’re in happy yet vulnerable in foreign lands, staying somewhere we’ve never been, with a staff that we can’t vouch for; Why aren’t we notified if someone decides they want an early bonus from our hotel safe?

That bothers us. It makes us feel angry and ignored. So we decided to create a hotel safe that would hold its own in our absence.

Truly The First Smart Safe

Meet SILO, the first (and long overdue) connected hotel smart safe that notifies users when it senses tampering.

The SILO smart safe was developed with connected technology, minimalist design, and a touch of millennial brazenness.

Users can add their phone number during setup to receive notifications (via text message or push) if;

• Tampered
• Someone enters the wrong passcode
• You leave something behind in your room/safe after checkout.

The SILO smart safe doesn’t have a master passcode and can’t be remotely unlocked. If too many false passcode attempts are made, the SILO system will notify hotel security staff. Allowing them to can engage lockdown mode while they head over to investigate.

The problem of hotel theft is bigger than you’d think. Although the solutions seem simple, there has been little hotel safe innovation over the past century. A new creative mindset to develop solutions is a clear path to eliminating these solvable problems with the all-too-familiar hotel safe.