Hello, I know hotels in Greece need your name and passport number for registration and tax purposes.
Upon check-in do they generally take a picture of your passport or do they take the data manually? I would like to know because I value my privacy and know what to prepare for. Who want the picture of their sensitve documents laying everywhere?
If the hotels do scanning or photocopying, will they listen if you object and tell them do it manually?
Thank you!
Aside from your photo, what information is on your passport page that wouldn't be on your hotel registration? Come to think of it, wouldn't your hotel registration actually have more personal info than your passport?
Can't speak for standard practice in Greece, but our hotels in Italy will photocopy the first page simply to save time, and then it is transcribed to the appropriate documents at a less busy time. They arent just left laying around. In the olden days, you had to surrender your passport until they had the time, and then it was returned- sometimes the next day. It's really not something you need to worry about.
If the hotels do scanning or photocopying, will they listen if you object and tell them do it manually?
IF they don't just say NO, I would expect they will keep the passport til the next AM and have the overnight clerk manually copy the info.( Assumes Greek law does not require an actual copy of the passport)
I wouldn't worry about whether my passport is scanned, or if it's just the number that's written down.
There are over 30 million visitors to Greece every year, and your hotel must see hundreds of them every month, they don't have time to waste scanning your passport and they're not interested in your photo. They just need the passport number and your name, that's all.
Also note that the European regulation concerning the protection of personal data (RGPD) is much better than the US one.
European countries have much stricter identity rules than are traditional in the US. This is not a plot to clone your passport and steal your identity. Get used to it. Think about how many people ask here every month, "Carry my passport, or carry a photocopy?" I carry a photocopy.
Note that I do not believe "privacy is so, over, dude." What I'm saying is that you're not in the US and you are not being scammed.
