hotels & passports
 

I understand you need give the hotelier your passport in Italy. Does a xerox copy suffice or does it need to be the original?

They will probably want the original to do some paper work. It's no biggie.

Hi patiboo. The original passport is turned into the the desk clerk. The local PD requires this. This is the law in Italy. The information on your passport is filled out on a form that the hotel has to turn into the local PD. Then your passport is returned to you.

It is not a problem. Have a wonderful trip.

topping

In our recent experience in Rome the hotel took the passports, made Xerox copies of the information page as we checked in and immediately handed he passports back to us.

Our passports were taken so the people at the hotel could get the required information from them. That's Italian law. They were given back to us afterwards. Don't worry.

Some hotels (probably mostly cheaper ones where you pay in cash) like to keep the passport overnight as security. They have no legal right to do this, so you can ask them to return the passport once they've completed their paperwork. I've never known a hotel refuse to hand the passport back. If the hotel doesn't trust you to pay the bill, offer to pay in the evening before going to bed.

OTOH, some of the hotels I've stayed at in Italy never actually looked at my passport. They had me fill in the info on a form, but never checked what I'd written against the passport itself. I'm sure that's not strictly kosher but neither they nor I never had any problems because of it.

oops, should have been "neither they nor I ever had any problems" not "never" (grammar police can resume breathing).

they may look at it and copy your information down, or ask you to do it for them, but I've never had one actually keep it.