Is it safe to label luggage?

Jesse wants to know if putting her name and address on a baggage tag is a bad idea

Is it really unsafe to put my address on my luggage tag? I read something about burglars noting down the details and knowing that you're abroad, then burgling your home before you return from holiday. Jesse

Sunday Times travel expert Richard Green responds: You would have to be incredibly unlucky to have your house burgled as a result of someone opportunistically happening to read your luggage labels, but it does happen. And worse than that, there have been cases of organized gangs using accomplices at airports to gather addresses from passengers' bags as they wait in the check-in queues.

Either way, it is a completely unnecessary risk, as you really don't have to put a label on the outside of your bags. You should use a label of course, so that the airline can contact you if the bag becomes lost, but that should be inside the bag.

On the external label just put the address of your hotel, or your travel agent or tour operator, and slide your business card into the label for the return, for example.