Villa owner requires passport numbers to reserve--Legit?

Italian law requires that foreigners staying in Italy register their presence within three days of their arrival. When you register at a hotel, they will ask to see your passport and note down the number, then pass the information onto police on your behalf. The villa owner is attempting to perform the same service for your brother in law, so he doesn't have to do it himself.

It's not only common, it's mandatory.

You have no choice. It is required. I doubt if a passport number would be all that useful for id theft.

x3. Passport numbers are required for each person staying in Italy. However, my understanding of the regulation was the passport information was required when you actually check-in and not at reservation stage. Odds are the villa owner is simply trying to make things easier for you when you arrive.

When asked to send my credit card number, I sent it in three different emails - not all at once. I was very concerned about it, but it seemed to be a requirement for booking the hotels I wanted. I have had no problems with doing it this way.

Also, keep in mind that, under new rules, you will have to have your passport with you to use an Internet Cafe. Apparently they don't always ask to see it, but they're supposed to. Another anti-terrorism precaution, given how the Internet has been used in the past. Previously, some hotels would want to keep your passport the whole time you were staying with them.

The above is all correct. Years ago, the hotels used to keep your passport all night and return it in the morning. Now, they simply ask for it on arrival, log in the required information, and then hand it back to you.

What concerns me most is that many smaller hotels ask you to email your credit card information to them. We really struggled with this one as many smaller hotels do not have web pages with online reservations. We had to do this with three places we stayed at last year. We complied to get the reservation but we were very uncomfortable with the process. Nothing bad happened as a result.

One thing that perturbs me is that some hotels will make a charge on your card to test it, then immediately reverse it. BUT the charge gets the conversion fee and when they reverse it you don't get that back. So you pay $5 or so just so they can verify your card. Oh well ...

If you have a Citibank credit card there is something you can do that can reduce the chances for fraud by giving out your card; in fact I do this will all credit card transactions over the internet or phone. With Citibank you can generate a "virtual" credit card number. This is a temp card number that charges to your account but you can specify the maximum amount that can be charge and the expiration date. So even if someone were to steal the number it won't do them much good. Other credit card companies may do this, too; I know Bank of America also offers it.

Have you thought of asking them WHY they need the numbers now?

I have never been asked for Passport info prior to arrival.

As the above poster indicated I too have send CC info by email - in two different emails -from two seperate email addresses.

Breaking a credit card number is a lot of brain damage. The transmission of the number is very secure and for all practical purposes cannot be captured. It is what happens after the number is received at the end computer. You cannot control that. If they are sloppy with your number then they are sloppy. And it would make no difference if you sent it in one batch, or two batches, or two computers. You are addressing the problem at the wrong point. My solution has always been to use a credit card that is specifically NOT authorized for European charges. However, no one has every try a test charge so I may not be able to do that in the future.