In my experience most European hotels require your passport to record details. They sometimes keep them overnight but certainly no longer.

If you need it, they will gladly give it back to you. They will take down the needed information at the time of registration if you ask them to.

"Can they do this?" Yep - and most hotels will.

But they will also give it back to you when you need it.

"I won't give up my passport to a hotel.

In many countries it is the law that the hotel take your passport for at least the first day so they can register their guests w/ the local police - not a big deal at all.

<I won't give up my passport to a hotel>

Well you're gonna aggiegirl -LOL. That's just how it's done.

They don't actually have to take your passport. They can copy the necessary information as you stand there. In practice, if you give them your passport while you check into your room, they will happily give it back to you next time you come to the desk.

If this really bothers you, you can simply carry a copy of the front pages of your passport and give that to the desk clerk. They only need the information, not the actual passport.

Many countries require that hotels register foreign guests with the police. All they need is the information from your passport, not the passport itself, so you can refuse to let them keep your passport. The only time you need to hand over a passport is to authorized agents of the government, if they request it legally (under local law). In all cases, it remains the property of your government; it doesn't actually belong to you, nor does it belong to any hotel or government that takes possession of it.

Given how important a passport is and how much it is worth on the black market (especially U.S. passports), it surprises me that anyone is ever willing to hand over a passport for any purpose at all, much less allow it out of their sight for any period of time. You're taking less risk by handing them your wallet than you are by handing them your passport.

I'm surprised this practice still exists, actually, as I've not been asked to turn over my passport to any hotel anywhere in Europe for the past 15 years, though before that it was quite common.

Some hotels in some countries DO need your passport information, but they don't need your actual passport. So make copies of your passport - the picture page and the page with all the vital info - and take that with you and turn THAT over to the hotels in lieu of your actual passport. It should be all that they need.

Thanks everybody for the responses. I do plan on bringing extra photocopies of my passport. Also, I've emailed the hotel in question and am awaiting a response. Can't wait to hear what they say.

aggie, they are only doing what they are required to do by asking for your passport, and yes, they don't have to keep it for the length of your stay, and yes showing them the original and then giving only a copy should be fine.

Most of you assume the desk clerk is only checking YOU in at that moment, but they may actually have more to do then just focus on you ,, so if you give them the passport ( or copy for you nervous types , as we all hear all the time about the hotel desk clerks who are constantly "losing" peoples passports but really selling them to their friends,,, ( ROLL EYES) .. then they can fill in the extra paperwork when they have a quiet moment. .. geesh. Some people certainly sound demanding and scared...

I imagine if a hotel clerk " lost" your passport ,, you would have to file a police report,, I wonder how many hotels would want the police coming in and checking out about " lost " passports.

PS Although it is wise to carry your passport when travelling Aggie, you do realize no one will ask to see it at the border,, as there are really no borders anymore, and you do not go through immigration when travelling within EU countries by car or train its kind of sad really, no more stamps in your passport ..

<<< and you do not go through immigration when travelling within EU countries by car or train its kind of sad really, no more stamps in your passport .. >>>

...when travelling within SCHENGEN countries...

'Skips' are a problem in any hotel. Hence the passport as a security token. Other businesses (sports equipment rental) regularly retain driver licenses and credit cards! Many countries require domicile registration of everyone, especially visitors. Use the USA State Department to get information about current laws.

I have never had to leave my passport with the hotel. I have had them photocopy it, but I have never left the desk without it. This has been the case in the Asian, South American, and European countries I have visited.

Perhaps Slovenia is some sort of special case? But I'm not sure where the comments that "most" hotels keep them or that it is common in "Europe" are coming from.

this sounds like a post for the It's so wrong thread...hee, hee...

I've not been to Ljublijana, but anywhere I have been they photocopy or write down the info and I get my passport back so that I can lose it all by myself.

gruezi

bozama: I have no idea how you found this thread - but aggiegirl posted her question nearly 3 years and took her trip in Spring 2006.

(I honestly am curious - how does one even find such an old thread since the search function is so lame)

janis, I have no idea, since I didn't do a search,, so it must have been on the first page , or max page two of threads since I would never gone back like the 30 pages it must have been on,,and normally I do check how old a thread is unless I pulled it up on a search..