I was curious, I heard that some hotels keep your passport when you check in. I'm not sure if this is just certain areas in Europe.

They keep it for a short period, or they make a copy and give it back to you. Hotels are required by law to record your information.

It used to be very common in most of Europe for hotels to keep passports overnight so that the night clerk had something to do and could record the information during slow time. Now it is fairly common for them to keep the passport for an hour or two if real busy or make a copy during your checkin.

My only experience with this (recently - they used to take your passport everywhere all the time) has been in Italy, where they take your passport long enough to do whatever it is they have to do to register you with the local police dept., and you usually get it back within an hour or so.

and you feel comfortable leaving it with them at the desk and going to your room? Or do you hover around the desk until you get it back from them?

In Russia and most other former Soviet countries (except the Baltics) many hotels will keep the passports for at least several hours while they are processing the registration with the local police. Most upscale hotels will not require this waiting period.

It depends on the country! Where are you going?

Not in the 12 countries I've been to. Not once.

HI SJ,

>Not in the 12 countries I've been to. Not once.

Mind telling us where?

Hi tk,

>and you feel comfortable leaving it with them at the desk and going to your room?

Do you let a waiter take your CC away from the table?

Recently, in Italy, the hotels took our passports for a few hours.

Can you imagine what an uproar would happen if hotels in the US did this? What denunciations that it is unfair to the poor who can't afford a passport? Condemnations that the govt is 'shredding the constitution' by requiring the hotel "to register you with the local police dept"?

No - you don't hang around waiting - unless the clerk tells you it will just be a few minutes.

And sometimes the "couple of hours" will turn into over night, especially if you check in in the evening.

They will sometimes keep your passport in the cheaper hotels. They will take your passport when you check in and give it back to you when you check out. They do this so that they make sure that they get their money. These hotels deal with a lot of cash transactions. I have had hotels keep my passport in Prague and Ljubljana, Slovenia even though I used my credit card.

I have spent 70 nights in 19 places in Germany this decade, and not once have they even looked at my passport.

Note that I tend to stay in small, family run pensions, places normally frequented only by Germans. Although I speak German somewhat fluently, they can't help but know immediately from my accent that I am an American, but they never look at my passport.

I have heard that in Italy it is required by law that they record all foreigners who stay there.

This is not common, I have never had this happen in Europe, either. I did have it happen once many years ago in Egypt.

Where have I been? Belgium, France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic, and Greece. Actually, Greece was so long ago I don't really remember there. I have had some hotels ask to write down or make me write down the passport number on some records. I have never had any hotel ask to keep my passport. I've been traveling to Europe over 20 years, and it never happened to me 20 years ago, either.

This use to be quite common in a lot of hotels in Europe, not all of them thou. These datys is happens less and less, but there are still a few who still ask for them.

In my experience, this was common, but during the past two trips to Holland, France, Italy, and Switzerland in 2006 and 2007, no one asked to see my passport at any of our hotels.

I think it is most common in Italy - every time I've visited Italy my passport has been kept for at least a few hours. And in Russia. It's never happened in the UK, and only once or maybe twice in France.

For me, yes in Italy. They kept it a few hours or overnight or made a copy of it and returned it.

The front desk of all the hotels in Italy did this with ours. But not in any other countries we have visited.

Depends on country and hotel. T

hey all have to see it and get your info to register you. Many make copies and some prefer to send this to back office staff to do - rather than hold up people checking in. No one will keep it for long - and you can have it back as soon as you're been reported in.