Most every hotel I’ve been to in Europe wanted to see my passport when I checked in. They didn’t take it in my case, they just borrowed it for a few minutes, but I’ve heard that they do hold on to it sometimes. In American hotels, they don’t care at all about your passport.
So, why do they need your passport? Do they treat locals the same with regards to this?
Yes, they do. This varies from country to country, but quite a number of European countries require hotels to inspect the identity papers of their guests and register the details.
I’ve absolutely no idea why they do this. They just do.
I imagine there is probably some legal requirement for them to do this but I don’t know what it is. However, I know some hotels (nicer ones at least) bill this as a benefit. If you get into some sort of trouble in the country you are in they claim to be able to start the process of getting you help (e.g. notify the embassy for you, intervene with the police on your behalf and so on [I actually had a hotel do this for me when I got my car towed in Austria]).
Don’t most hotels, American and otherwise, want to see some form of ID when you check in? The only form of ID you’re likely to be carrying which would be recognized abroad is your passport.
Despite what I’ve seen posted in hotel lobbies, that they require a photo ID, I’ve never been asked for indentification when registering, in the U.S., Mexico, or Canada. I’ve no idea what occurs in Europe.
Historically, many countries in Europe kept careful note of foreign visitors. In comparison with the North American countries there was much more international travel, together with military, political and economic rivalry (i.e. wars).
In Paris, for example, the police would visit every hotel on a nightly basis to collect details of all foreign guests.
Even now, when the Schengen agreement has removed border controls between participating nations (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy and Austria) there are specific rules for visitors.
IIRC, I’ve read* that (in Italy, at least) you–the foreign tourist–are required to register with the local police when you are having an extended stay in their town. Theoretically, your hotel will save you the trouble and do this for you with the information they get from your passport. Whether or not (a) this is true, (b) the hotel registers for you, and/or © the local police actually care, I don’t know.
*My source was most likely the Rough Guide to Sicily.
EVERY hotel I have worked in for 19 years has required VALID ID. However I seem to be one of the few people to work a front desk to enforce this.
Where I work now (I am in systems now) they must have a Driver’s Licence, State Issued ID or a passport to check you in. Most clerks don’t bother to ask.
Despite after 9-11 when our company re-enforcing the policy.
I’ve been in France, Italy, Germany, Monaco, Switzerland, Morrocco, Costa Rica, Japan and South Korea. ( I think that’s it).
Every SINGLE hotel required that I surrender my passport to them for a while. Typicall just an hour or so. Since my passport number and info was entered at Immigration at the Airport ( typically an hour or two,or three before I’m checking in to the hotel ), I always believed that they were literally letting the National Government know by way of computer, where I’d wound up.
Never bothered me any. Lacking a Passport, I simply stayed at the hotel until it was returned. Never…ever…ever…walk away from my Passport. Well, no further than up to my room, to unpack/doze/watch t.v./read until I’m reunited with it. Since I’ve never been in a country for more than a week, I’ve only registered in Seoul with the US Embassy, since I was there about 8 or 9 days.
I wouldn’t sweat the surrendering, it’s what they require. I’m a guest in their country, I abide by their rules. Pretty basic.
Cartooniverse
Japanese hotels have always asked to see either my passport or alien registration card. I’m not sure what they ask to see from Japanese guests.
When I went to Hawaii from Japan they also asked for my passport at the hotel. They probably more in the habit of checking than other hotels since there were so many overseas guests.
I should add, however, the the ‘love hotels’ in Japan don’t ask for any ID. Usually, the front desk is set up so that they don’t even see your face. FYI if you want to travel incognito.
I doubt this very much. In most places the practice of hotels inspecting passports long predates widespread computerisation. They’re probably either (a) transcribing the details of your passport by hand into a ledger, which the police may or may not inspect from time to time, or (b) photocopying pages of your passport and putting them into a file, which the police may inspect from time to time, and which takes the place of a ledger.
This is probably more closely tied to the desire of some European countries to register everyone who is in the country. For example, in Italy the police have (or should have) a register with details of who lives in every house in their district. If visitors come to the district for more than a brief stay, whether they are Italians or not, they are supposed to register. Similarly everyone who stays in a hotel in the district, whether or not he is Italian, is supposed to be registered by the hotel.
Basically, they like to know where people are (or, at any rate, to be able to know if they need to) but they don’t target foreigners particularly.
The only ID they should care about is whether my credit card is valid. I used to allow myself to be cowed by the Hotels, and dutifully handed over my passport to them. Now, I refuse, and give them my credit card. When they protest, I tell them that it’s for security purposes - which it is. Sometimes they have to call the manager, but I am freaking tired of handing over my only real form of safe ID in a foreign country to a pimply-faced teen for safekeeping.
I can see if you walked in off of the street, and said you would pay cash or by check, sure - they need to have some assurance that you will pay. But when your reservation is made by a multi-billion dollar company, and you’re paying with a valid no-limit Platinum American Express card…they have no reason or right to hold your passport.
I stand corrected, I didn’t think about how many years the countries must have been doing this. Surely pre-dating Databases and such. My mistake, sorry.
Does this pre-date World War II?
Just throwing in a few more observations.
The Schengen agreement states that you have to be able to prove your nationality. Since ID/Driver’s license don’t - yet - we still need to carry our passports. Damned nuisance, I think. Why, you ask?
Cause there is a no passport zone between the Scandinavian countries, meaning Norwegiens (not EU member) can come to Sweden and would then be able to travel freely withing the Schengen zone, which is not supposed to happen. Not a bigf deal, maybe, but we have immigrants in Sweden from every part of the world who are not citizens, just ‘green card’ people. Only citizens of Schengen countries can travel freely.
As for the hotell/passport thing, my take is that it’s cultural. I’ve been to every country in Europe, numerous times. I notice that countries that were once more… hrmf… fascistoid tend to be more for the rubber stamp/check passport attitude, even today. I’ve never had to show an ID in a Swedish hotel, nor Danish, Every now and then in Germany, Never in Belgium, UK, Holland, But always in Italy, Greece, France and Spain.
Anthracite, I agree I would not let the passport out of my sight but I do not think you can refuse to show it. I think the “leave your passport at the desk for a while” is really meant to be a service in that they will fill in the forms for you but I would rather do it myself just like I hate valet parking even if my car is junk. I like to do my own stuff thankyouverymuch.
I have refused to give it to them, although I will show them it. I will not hand it over to them unless they are a uniformed law enforcement officer who is asking me for it. The last 3/3 times I’ve rented in Europe this year I’ve refused to give it to them, and been given little trouble over it.
The times when I have handed it to them, I have never had it returned in less than 1-2 hours. There is no way they can’t slap it down on a photocopier in 30 seconds, or scribble down the needed info in a minute. I don’t know what they think they’re doing holding my passport for an hour or more.
My point is - I don’t trust my passport with anyone when I travel. Not even for half an hour in the hands of a hotel clerk. I will identify myself with it, but they can not have it. And like you said, I would not let it out of my sight. Hell, I even sleep with it under my pillow…
In Russia it’s still a legal requirement to register with the local militia station if you’re going to be in a city for 3 days or more. The hotel takes your passport and does it for you, thereby saving you the trouble of visiting the militia station in person.
The thing that bugged the crap out of me the last time I was in a Russian hotel, though, is that they wouldn’t let my Russian friend up to my room unless he left his passport at the front desk. They said it was “for my own safety.” WTF? I’d known him quite a while in the U.S., and I’m a grownup, and some Russian rent-a-cop is going to tell me about my own safety? We decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and hung out at his apartment instead. Now if he had been an axe murderer, would I have been safer at his place?
Psst! Gaspode? Norway is part of the Schengen area. Yes, even though it’s not an EU member. Confusing enough for you? It sure is confusing enough for me, since I (as a resident alien) have to have a special sticker in my passport to leave and re-enter the Schengen area, and the sticker is only good for two years at a time 
Most of the Schengen-related paranoia has to do with illegal aliens and drug traffickers, who no longer have internal borders to contend with… in theory.