Passports

I have had my passport taken at hotels in various parts of the world including Europe. Where I would be much more hesitant to hand it over is on a street...... if a "policeman" wants to see it etc. I've been told that if that comes up, hand over a copy...... if that isn't good enough offer to show it at the police station. So hotels are fine, but am reluctant to do it elsewhere.

I have never left my passport with a hotel, although I have provided it upon check in and waited while they have recorded my information. I've never been asked to show my passport in public aside from the standard airport checks and sometimes by patrols on the trains. No one has ever asked to retain it.

I usually just hand mine to the clerk for a few minutes at a time and they log some info and hand it back. On a Smartours tour of Turkey in 2014 we had to give them to the hotel clerks for an hour or so and they were out of our reach. It made me nervous - at one hotel they left all the passports just sitting there on the desk for a really long time and then when we stopped by to pick ours up later they were handing them out indiscriminately, without even checking. I didn't like it but I had to do it and it worked out ok.

In about 150 nights in this century (I don't remember what happen on my business trips in the 80s) in Germany (mostly), Czechia, and Austria I have never been asked for my passport at any accommodation.

The only time I remember having to hand over my passport upon hotel checkin was in Italy. I've never been asked for it from a hotel anywhere else. I know it's common in Italy because it is a law there that the hotels have to abide by.

One other time on a trip to Greece in 2001 our tour bus was stopped and everyone had to pass their passports up to the front to be examined by some authorities. I think they just wanted to know that we were all Americans or Canadians, they also escorted our bus for a while because I think there might have been some threats against western tourists at that time.

I've never had problems handing it to anyone in authority and only concern was that I got it back in a timely fashion.

http://www.travelandleisure.com/blogs/why-do-european-hotels-require-passports-at-check-in

There’s a long tradition throughout Europe of statutes requiring
hotels to collect information on guests—including name, nationality,
and ID number—enabling law enforcement to cross-check for wanted
individuals, criminals, or missing persons. The European Union has
since made such data collection a requirement for hotels in member
states.

EU Query on registration at accommodation establishments

Question: Due to that the Estonian Ministry of Interior would like to find out Member States’ practice in this
regard.

1. Is there an obligation in place in you Member State for accommodation establishments to register all guests staying there?

2. Is the data on guests registered in a data base and/ or is the data stored (if the data is stored in a different way, then how)?

Do law enforcement authorities have access to such data?

Responses:

Czech Republic

1. Yes. Providers of accommodation are obliged to report to the Police that a foreign national has been provided with accommodation within
   three working days afterwards.

2. While the reporting itself can be effectuated by e-mail with electronic signature, the registration forms shall be archived for six
   years from the date of accommodation of the foreign national. Also the
   guest register must be kept in writing (not electronic form) and shall
   be retained by the provider of accommodation for six years from the
   date of the last entry.

3. Yes, provider of accommodation is obliged to submit the guest register for inspection at the request of the Police

Finland

1. Yes. In accordance with Act on Accommodation and restaurant services all guest are registered.

2. Service providers may store data in an electronic data base or similar.

3. Yes. The police have right to access passenger information if necessary....

France

1. a) In France, Law No. 2006-911 of 24 July 2006 on immigration and integration provided the introduction of a new chapter of the Social Action and Family Code (Book III, Title IV, Chapter VIII) on the reception centres for asylum seekers (Centre d’accueil des demandeurs d’asile = CADA) including the establishment of a centralized filing computer system making possible the automatic processing of data relating to the accommodation capacity of the CADA and the asylum seekers received in those centres. It is managed by the French Office for Immigration and Integration (Office Français de l’Immigration et de l’Integration = OFII).

b) A register is held in any temporary accommodation establishment of
a social character (including CADA). It shall contain information
concerning the identity of persons staying in the establishment with
the date of their admission.

1. a) The data are registered in a database called DN@.

2. a) This database is available to the regional and departmental directorates for health and social affairs (Direction Régionale des
   Affaires Sanitaires et Sociales = DRASS / Direction Départementale des
   Affaires Sanitaires et Sociales = DDASS) and the prefects. b) This
   register is kept permanently available to the competent judicial and
   administrative authorities.

Etc, etc....

I don't even think about it anymore other than make sure I gain passports promptly after being used to register us at hotels.

Another instance would be on cross border night trains, when you hand it to the cabin steward (if you have a sleeping compartment or couchette) upon boarding. They bring it to you in the morning with your wake-up an hour before your stop.

When I started going to Italy in the 1990's, the hotels would hold my passport for a few hours or overnight. More recently, they just make a copy of it, and hand it right back to me.

I agree it's not a "European" tradition to hold passports at hotels; it varies from country to country. And with copiers almost ubiquitous, it's going the way of traveler's checks.

I guess I would modify the advice to never hand over your passport in an instance you did not initiate. Hotels and trains are common places to provide your passport. In hotels I have experienced mostly a few minutes to a few hours needing my passport; though years ago a few small hotels would hold your passport for security until you settled the bill. Leaving a passport for security also has been an option for things like Museum Audio Guides or similar things. Overall, I think the main concern would just be losing the passport as an inconvienance for you, there really is not much "identity" theft information they can get from it or inherant value that the passport has.

Hi,

In Germany, France, Austria , England I have been asked to show the US Passport or at least provide the necessary info when you fill out the Meldeschein upon check in, be it at a 4 star hotel or a Pension. The necessary info includes indicating your nationality and the Passport number. Likewise at a hostel too. At most they look at it, they don't retain it. Does the Reception actually hold your passport in his/her hands? Sometimes, when they want you to give it to them. They give it right back. I've never had any problems upon check-in re the Passport in Poland, France, Germany, Austria, London

About the Passport on an EN night train when crossing the border: In 2009 I did just that, the Passport never left my possession when crossing Austro-German border at Passau. That was because I was not in a couchette or a sleeper but in a compartment with 4 others. The controller just checked our reservations, tickets. You had to pay him if no reservation.

When I visited Venice, about 4 years ago, my passport was held at the hotel desk for a few hours. When I asked why, the receptionist said that he had to verify my information.
Otherwise, when checking into any other European hotel, the receptionist scanned the passport and returned it promptly.
It's always a good idea to carry a reduced-size copy of your passport with you, in case it goes missing and you have to replace it. Contrary to what some people think, this is not illegal.

In 2-1/2 months in Spain I have always been asked for my passport at hotel check-in. It seems that some hotels just make a record of the information they are required to keep while others photocopy the main page. Sometimes they want to keep the passport for a little while--I assume because they're busy at the moment and/or the copier is not located right at the front desk. On some occasions they've been willing to use a copy of my passport, but often they tell me they need the original.

Belgium and most of the central and eastern European countries require you, by law, to have your passport on you at all times.

Lately I have noticed some places photo the passport identification page with a cell phone.

What about when you're taking a shower?

Sam, don't you wear your waterproof money belt or neck pouch into the shower? That's what I've done all these years. Even at home. 😎

We have been asked to hand over passports at many hotels, in France, Italy, Greece, spain etc. It doesn't bother me a bit. Desk clerks sometimes ask you to come back for it in an hour, thats fine with me. What exactly is the fear??

I would be nervous handing it over to a plainsclothes cop, but never been asked. Usually dont have it on me though, so doubt a fake cop would take you back to hotle to retrieve it .

I always have to show my passport when checking into a hotel. It used to be almost a foregone conclusion that they would take it and you could pick it up later. These days, it seems more common for them to record your information and return your passport while you're checking in - maybe related to more people concerned about scams?

I've never worried about leaving it at the front desk of the hotel, but I do take it with me everywhere. I can't remember showing it to anyone who I didn't believe was acting in an official capacity (rental car, hotel, airport, TI if I'm booking something, etc.). The toughest one might be fake cops, but I haven't had to deal with them yet.

If you take a sleeping couchette they WILL take your passport. We were a group of five headed from Milan to Paris overnight. It made us incredibly uncomfortable but it was the protocol. What made us even more nervous was them stopping the train at 2AM in the middle of nowhere and doing a shake down of our luggage. We didn't speak Italian and didn't understand why they were searching all our bags. They did it to every couchette that night it turned out...I've never heard of anyone else having that experience though.