And that includes hotels in countries we visited on ALL Continents - North America, Asia, Europe and Australia, either before Covid or the past 2 years.

I found the "information" from the poster who claimed from Europe absolutely NOT true comparing to what our experiences have been just from 2021 till now. Oh, all Italian hotels made a photocopy of the passports. I cannot remember if London's do the same, but presenting the PHYSICAL Passports at check in are a MUST, so as Physical credit card even though all reservations already have guarantee CC info in the system. Hotels want / need to make sure if you have a currently Valid CC to pay the bill - what else can they verify immediately then immediately authorize the CC you are asked to present?