beware 'safety lock boxes in khongor guesthouse

hello. this is just a warning to anyone leaving their valuables in the so-called safety lock box in the guestrooms at khongor guesthouse in ub. we left our money in the box and had counted it when we first put it inside the box. we did not count again for ten days and at that time discovered that $100 was missing. (though we cannot vouch for anyone else, two girls also said that they had been robbed of $90). when we informed the guesthouse, we were treated horrifically and were told to leave the guesthouse as we were making false accusations. they did call the police who only looked at the security tapes for the two girls. also, the police discovered that the same room key opened up two different rooms. the guesthouse 100% did not support us and did not care. also, within three days the manager of the guesthouse was telling people who came to check in that there were safety boxes in the room that they could keep their valuables in.

i would like to say that this is the third time we have stayed at khongor guesthouse. altogether we have spent over four months there. we have been on four tours with them. i think the tours are still great and this last one was quite possibly the best. we did stay on at khongor, even after the theft as in the past we have found that khongor was a great place to stay and did the best tours. so, we had an uneasy truce with the owner. i also would like to say that the owners and i have emailed each other for five years and exchanged birthday cards and presents. i cannot say why the owner treated us so badly and yelled at us like we were the thieves. i think she may know who the thief was but she never admitted it. i love mongolia and i used to love this guesthouse. but i will never return. oh. we never got an apology.

So bad to read this happened to you. I stayed in Golden Gobi Guesthouse and it was OK, so cannot share the same experience with you.

Only thing i can say, even if you got no apology, after all these years of loyalty to this guesthouse think about the repercussion your post might have. Given how active is the community here, i always rather trust what people comment here than 'the last edition of the lonely planet'. Do you think anybody is gonna bother satying at Khongor and get their money stolen than choose any other of the hundred hostels of UB? I don't think so.

I never leave my money in the saves

Not everyone reads LPTT before travelling so this may not hurt them too much.

Thoughtful prepared travelers do.

the purpose of the posting was to warm folks about the safety boxes. i should also have mentioned however that someone had to have the key to the room and also the key to the box. this makes the room unsafe also. and yes, people should know about safety issues. your belongings are very valuable and you should have a sense of security for things left in your room as well as in the box. it is a tough choice to make as 'they' say the streets of ub are unsafe too. well, we were never robbed on the streets.

I went into Khongor Guest House, looking for a room last week (They didn't have one) but I noticed that one of the (Male) staff members was sporting a rather impressive black eye so maybe the culprit has been found (Or Khongor Guest House is even less safe than you thought it was).