Is it normal for a front desk to request to hold passport?

They always ask for your passport so that your visitor information can be supplied to the appropriate agencies. The passport is usually given back within a 2 or 3 hour window. Keeping a passport indefinitely during your entire stay is something I wouldn't allow. If that's the case then look elsewhere for accomodations.

Yes, it's normal. It's required by law that they take down all the information on your passport. If they don't have a copy machine this means they must do it by hand. If there are several people checking in at the same time this could take up to 2 hours before you get your passport back. This is normal and happens every day. Donna

Yes. Happens all the time for the reason Donna stated. They might hold your passport at the desk until you ask for it back, so check back with them later than evening or the next day if they don't return it to you. It's also very common for the hotel to ask you to leave your room key at the front desk when you leave the hotel. Especially true for smaller hotels.

Yes, very common, especially in Italy. At one time passports were held overnight so that the night clerk could record the information in the ledger but now it is more common for the passport to be held only a couple of hours while a copy is made. And sometimes, they will take the passport, make a copy and hand it back. For some reasons, Americans seem to get very up tight with this process.

One option you may have to avoid any time that they actually keep your passport (not that there is any security concern, it is a valid request and they have no motive in taking your passport of course) is to email them all of your information ahead of time. They can fill out the forms, and check your passports to simply confirm what you already sent. This may expedite the process!

I travel with copies and have left the copy after they compare with the original.