Question about renting a vacation apartment in Europe
 

Is it common practice for the landlord to ask for your Passport number, date of birth and place of birth when renting an apartment in Europe? We are renting one apt. in Paris, one in Rome and one in London. Both the landlords in Paris and Rome have requested this info. On our prior visits to Europe we stayed in hotels, so this is a different experience for us. Thanks.

I have just rented and paid for a villa and an apartment in France and no one asked for a passport number, D.O.B. or place of birth. They were reputable landlords. When checking into a hotel in Europe they always check your passport and may even hold it for several hours. That is common practice.

Never been asked in France, either or the UK. Have only stayed at hotels in Italy so can't help there

Hello, sobeachkat, I don't know anything about France but in Italy one gives the passport to the hotel clerk when registering and the passport information when renting an apartment or house in that Italy has the law that all visitors must register when in Italy. A visitor is expected to go to the local office (PD I believe) to register or the apartment agency or owner of an apartment/house will take your passport information and register for you.

Having said that I have failed to do so when staying in Italian friends homes as I have always forgot about the law. There has never been a problem but I imagine if I was detained for some reason by law enforcement it would be a problem!

yes, I've been asked that in France. And they were reputable agencies. I think it may possibly even be a legal requirement but a lot of agencies don't do it. Now I might be wrong on that and they are doing it for their own security reasons, but the reason hotels do it is for legalities, after all.

I rented an apartment in Rome and I had to provide this information to the agency after I booked the rental. As mentioned above, I think it's a requirement but some agencies are better at following it than others.

Thanks everyone - I feel better about providing them the information now. It has been quite a few years since my last trip to Europe, we may have had to give our passports to the hotels, I don't remember.

In Italy, it is a legal requirement. In other countries, it is non uncommon because it gives added security, both for the landlord and for yourself (the passport number reduces the risk of credit card fraud).

I live in Italy and rent out a small vacation apartment. It is not common practice to ask for these details before the guest arrives.
On arrival, however, the law requires the guest to hand over an identification document (with photo) for registering with the local police.

I myself would never make a similar request of a prospective guest before arrival - there could be issues with identify theft if the rental owner is not bona fide.

Two U.S. based agenicies we dealt with for rentals in the UK and Switzerland required our passport info prior to our arrival.

Agencies must have their legitimate reasons for requesting this.

In direct guest/rental owner comunications I personally do not know of anyone who requests this information prior to arrival.