Is it really customary for the hotel to keep your room key?!
 

Question: For my last night in Paris, I got a room at a hotel right across the street from the Gare du Nord (so I could simply cross the street the next morning and hop on the RER to the airport). Anyway, as I was going out for an evening on the town, the clerk at the desk asked me for my room key. He said he would keep it until I returned later that evening. I told him all right, even though I found that quite bizarre. He insisted that it wasn't bizarre and that "that's how things are done in Parisian hotels". I said that was ridiculous, because I stayed in another hotel just the week before and they never did this. Has this ever happened to anyone else?

I've heard of that. Some attach the key to a large block of wood or something so that you don't have much choice in the matter. This helps prevent copying the keys, for one thing. Also, guests can't lose their keys, which means the hotel won't have to rekey the locks which they probably should if a guest "lost" the key.

One reason why I prefer electronic swipe systems.

We stay at a hotel on the Left Bank that has keys attached to these big bell sort of things. They keep them , we leave them at the desk, they give them back to us when we come in.
I think it is very normal.
In all our trips to Paris, nothing has ever happened with the key/hotel.

It is the custom and practice in Paris and in Munich and in London.
The hotel staff can get in your room anyhow. What's the big deal about leaving your room key? That way you don't lose it.

Yes it really is customary - not just in Paris but all over Europe. I'd say over 90% of the hotels I've stayed in over the last five years (from 1 star to 4 star) all do that.

I thoughtit odd, too until I realized that if someone got your key they could get into and rob your room so it is probably a good idea I think. We rented an apartment for our next visit and the agency warned us never to carry the keys and the address together.

Well the room key at the first hotel I stayed at was indeed attached to a rather large piece of metal, but it fit in my pocket. And as for the hotel referred to above, this key they wanted to keep was one of those plastic rectangles with holes drilled in them, so it's not like it could be copied at a "clé minute"... oh well, if that's the practice, I can accept it I suppose. :)

That has always been my experience in Italy. Actually I like it. Don't have to carry the key around, don't worry about losing it. Just pick up the key on the return to the hotel.
Have never had a problem.

The first hotel we stayed at in Paris didn't ask for the keys back every time we left, but the second hotel did. I must say that I don't like turning my keys in. It makes me feel like the hotel doesn't trust me to be responsible.

This measure also helps prevent hotels from people trying to sneak extra "guests" into the room.

It's common all over france. You may get a key with a lavender bag in Provence, A wooden fish in Brittany abd other designs in Normandy. I think it's great, you never worry about losing or missplacing it. In a known hotel, I wouldn't worry about it.

Most of the European hotels I've experienced didn't require the key when I went out. A few have, most haven't. But it's no big deal either way.

We were in Oregon last week and I lost our room key a couple of nights into the stay. It must have fallen out of my bag, but there you have it, it can and does happen.
It was a swipe card type.
In France, they are big metal keys and I love the old fashioned European-ness of them :D

I stayed at a small hotel in Paris this past Spring. They kept their key on a large fob, like for a gas station rest room. They asked that we turn them in each time we left the hotel.

I was in Wales two weeks ago at the Fishguard Bay Hotel. They had a sign requesting guests to leave their keys. Being being from the US, I had never experienced this and questioned the receptionist about it. She showed me the board with hooks and room numbers where they were hung. According to her, if there were a fire, they could easily see who was in or out. Soooo, I left my key.

It's been my experience all over Europe to turn the room keys into the desk. We take the opportunity to ask questions, practice asking for our key in the language of the country we're in, etc.

I have never found it offensive. It's just the custom, and it's probably a waste of emotions to take it personally or feel that it somehow reflects on the guest. That's how it's done.

Sorry about being twice!

Turning in the key at the desk has been my experience anywhere I've traveled in Europe; I remember years ago the huge,ornate,old world key we were given at the Badischer Hof in Baden Baden--very happy to leave it at the desk!

This has been our experience more often than not in smaller hotels throughout Europe. They are usually attached to a large piece of metal or wood so that it isn't desirable to carry them around. But that didn't stop mr_go, who once made off with the key -- complete with several pounds of metal attached -- from our hotel near Chinon in the Loire Valley. He discovered it in the pocket of his jacket about three hours later when we got to CDG for our flight. Not much we could do with that key at CDG on a Sunday. It was mighty expensive having to mail it back from Chicago!

I'm very accustomed to this practice and see it in most small hotels in Europe -- all countries. But I am surprised that no one has yet mentioned staying in a hotel where the keys are then hung up on a board and are easily accessible to anyone -- even if the desk is not manned. I've seen that quite a bit too.