Perhaps because I believe if people are out to steal things there's usually nothing you can do to stop them, I don't put too much stock in using the hotel safe.
In a recent poll, Map Happy polled over 400 people whether they even use the hotel safe at all during a trip. Though the prevailing answer was that most people don't opt for the hotel safe (55%), it came at a close tie in a near deadlock with the number of people that do use the hotel safe (45%).
It's as divisive as being a cat or dog person. Maybe.
I actually think dogs win that one.
Think about it. Most safes have some type of backdoor access in case a guest forgets the code. There's nothing to stop someone from Googling that information for a particular make or brand, or worse, making off with the safe entirely. Mix in a bunch of colorful and shady characters, and that's the next plotline for Ocean's Eleven.
If anything, the hotel safe has always seemed like a surefire way to forget things, since they aren't in plain sight. (Putting shoes in the safe will solve that problem.)
But, hey, to each his own.