FriendlySkies

At hotels in London and Sydney, I've never had my passport held. The front desk staff at the hotel just copy the info and away I go. They have also not made any copies of the passport..

Pharaoh

I've been to several countries where the hotel held the passports overnight the first night as they brought them to the local policeman's station for registration.

That was a while ago so may no longer be the procedure. Wish I could remember which countries. Egypt, maybe? Definitely third world ones...

In the Wood

Russia, Bielorussia and a fair number of former communist states outside the EU have this rule. I have always felt uncomfortable leaving my pass for an extended period of time but these are not countries where you have much choice.

Otherwise, as stated with many comments already, in the EU, it may be common you are asked to show your passport but very unlikely you would have to surrender it for an extended period of time, except for practical matters in night train

studentff

Italy is a nice place that would be a shame to skip. Some suggestions:

1) Get a Passport Card (~$20). If you're lucky, the hotel might accept it in lieu of your passport. Even if they still want your passport, you still have a pretty good ID (with all of your passport information) to hold on to. There are several stories of overseas entities accepting the passport card because it looks so much like their own national ID's, they just think it is the USA national ID. And in spite of all the warnings that the passport card is "not valid for international air travel," I suspect that with a passport-card and a credible story about losing your passport, you might be able to convince the airlines, immigration exit control, and US immigration (which would unfortunately be the hardest), to let you go home without having to go get a new passport at an embassy.

2) Try making copies of your passport ID page in advance and giving them to the hotel. In theory, if all they are interested in is verifying that you have a valid passport (which you can still show them) and copying the info (on the photocopy), that should be adequate. I've never tried that, but now that I thought of it, might do so in the future.

A lot of Americans are *extremely* uncomfortable with the entire idea that you have to "register with the police," etc., just to spend a night in a hotel somewhere. Such a system puts all the tools in place for the government to decide one night it is going to do a roundup of certain people, and immediately execute that roundup. There is nothing remotely resembling that requirement in common US practice, and such a proposal would probably (hopefully) get struck down by the courts. A lot of hotels in the US, particularly low-end ones, will happily let someone stay who pays cash, puts down an adequate cash deposit for the room/phone to be refunded on departure, and provides no valid ID information. Cities that have tried to institute immigration-check requirements to rent apartments have repeatedly had the policy struck down by courts.

IMO there (hopefully) still is a deep-rooted sense of freedom and liberty in Americans that is unique from almost all other cultures. Neither we nor our parents nor our grandparents have had to deal with a Gestapo, Stasi, Soviet-style internal controls, etc. We have not grown up with the paternalistic protective nanny-state of many western democracies. Unless we grew up as military children (like me), we probably never showed an ID for anything until we turned 17 and went to an R-rated movie, and we rarely if ever saw our parents show ID. I fear that the post-9/11-DHS-TSA culture of fear and routine pointless ID checks may change that for the next generation, though.

And after all the lectures we get about holding onto our passports and how we're screwed (and have to trek to an embassy, wait in line, prove our identity, etc.) if we lose it, the idea of handing it over to some stranger/clerk seems very contradictory. If a clerk loses my passport, he issues a halfhearted apology and I have my trip ruined. If I was confident he would lose his job for the mistake, I might feel better, but reality is that he wouldn't.

I know it's normal for international travel, and I tolerate it and expect it at this point, but it still gives me a deep uncomfortable feeling every time, and I will make every reasonable/polite effort to minimize the amount of time it is out of my control, including loitering around the desk to wait for them to copy the info.

I do wonder if a few highly publicized incidents of modern-type ID theft by hotel (or rail) clerks would reduce tourist tolerance for this type of information collection. Bad guys could make a fortune by compromising someone at a hotel that serves a lot of Americans or EU-passport holders, and periodically grabbing the passport of someone who nearly matches the height/weight/build/age of a "client" who wants a falsified passport.

mozgytog

If all they want is a copy of the info on the passport so they can do the registering with the police, I don't see why showing them the actual passport and providing a copy wouldn't be sufficient.

They'd still have everything they need to fill out the paperwork, and I'd still have my passport.

It does seem odd, the practice of registering with local police, and is definitely not something I have ever had to do when visiting Canada. The hotels there pretty much ask me for the same thing that hotels in the US do, which is that they swipe the credit card at check in.

I can live with the fact that other countries require people to register with the police to stay in a hotel, but I doubt it will ever feel 'normal'.

I've never showed ID for an R-rated movie. First time I had to produce ID was to get my driver's license. It didn't become a regular thing until five years later when I started going to the more reputable bars.

Exactly. Since I am the one who will have the major headache if my passport, driver's license, or credit cards are lost, I prefer to be the one who is responsible for them at all times. I know that I'm conscientious about my things. I do not know that a random stranger is, so giving them my ID or credit cards to hold on to is not something I'd consider as doing me a favor.

Hell I don't even valet park my car, ever, because I refuse to give the keys to a total stranger. When I take my car in for service, I sit in the waiting area and watch the work that's done on it. I'm very particular about letting things that are valuable to me be in someone else's possession.

When I've traveled to Mexico the hotels have always just made a photocopy right there at the desk. Total amount of time to make the copy was less than the amount of time to generate my room key.

polonius

Never had a hotel lose/misplace one, and again, having twice accidently left them behind on check out, the hotels in question did everything in their power to get it back to me. In my experience, travellers are much more likely to lose their passport than the hotel is.

mozgytog

I have never in my life lost an ID that belonged to me, and the idea that as an adult I need someone else to do me the favor of being responsible for my belongings bothers me.

Also, if I retain control of my ID there is no chance that I will forget to pick it up from the hotel clerk because I didn't leave it there in the first place.

Justruss

Certainly, it it uncomfortable to leave your passport, but some countries require police registration. Kazakhstan comes to mind in this regard, but Bahrain hotels will take your passport just to guarantee payment. As far as traveling by train, Schengen countries don't require a stamp when crossing borders. I would not surrender my passport to a train conductor and vigorous resistance usually prevails as my passport is invaluable to me.

meisterau

For hotels, carry a cola red photocopy

For trains: either give to conductor or be awoken by guatd

polonius

No need for "vigorous resistance," if you want to insist on being woken up 2 or more times during the night by border police, the railway staff is more than happy to accomodate. Just make sure you don't book yourself into my compartment, because the lights are staying off and the door is staying locked until its time for my morning tea.

exbayern

I'm not certain that I understand this advice. Why would a red copy be needed? I am also not certain that hotels would accept a copy.

On a side note, I do understand the concern about handing over ID, but it isn't unique to Europe to have to show an identity card or a passport at check in. I recall having to retrieve my passport from the trunk of the car in order to even enter the parking lot of a hotel at Disneyworld in Florida because the security guards ask for identification.

I have not had to surrender my passport in Italy in the last decade. I have stayed recently in independent hotels with those giant keys in former eastern bloc countries, and there too did not need to give up my passport entirely.

mozgytog

It may sound like pedantic hair splitting, but for me there is a world of difference between show and give.

If I show you my ID and you copy whatever information is legally required while I am standing there, I have no problem with it.

If you expect me to walk away while you are in possession of my ID, which you want to retain for some unspecified time outside of my supervision, we have an issue.

exbayern

No, I think that I understand your concern, and I am in no means trying to belittle how you feel. You have valid points.

What I am trying to do is to hopefully reassure a little that holding the passport isn't as common as it once was.

Sjoerd

There is no country on earth ( and I travelled to some 70 countries so far) in which i had to show an ID as often as in the USA........
You are much less free as you think you are..........

kevinsac

Then you need to think outside the box of being an American--and that every country does things the way American expect. While you may not be used to it in the US, I've done it for decades while in foreign countries. When you are a guest in a foreign country, you live according to their rules and customs.